Chicago Cubs vs. Los Angeles Dodgers preview, Sunday 4/23, 1:20 CT

Sunday notes...

• THE STRO SHOW: With his six shutout innings at Oakland on Tuesday, Marcus Stroman tied the Cubs’ record of allowing only two runs in a pitcher’s first four starts of a season. Steve Stone did it in 1976, then Jason Hammel in 2016. The five-start record is four runs. It was set by Carl Lundgren, in 1907, and not matched until 2016, when Jake Arrieta and Hammel both did it. Cole Hamels joined the club in 2018. Lundgren pitched 44 innings; Arrieta, 36; Hammel, 29; and Hamels, 34. Stroman has pitched 24 so far. Three Cubs gave up five runs in their first four starts: Dick Ellsworth (1963), Greg Maddux (2006) and Jon Lester (2019). Nine more gave up six, most recently Yu Darvish, in 2020. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• THE TEN-RUN EXPLOSION: Including Friday’s 13 runs scored, the Cubs have recorded at least one 10-run game in five of their first seven series this season. The last time any Cubs team did that was in 1938, also recording 10-run games in five of their first seven series.
• AMONG THE LEAGUE LEADERS: The Cubs’ .284 team BA ranks second in MLB to the Rays (.286). The team OBP (.354) is also second to the Rays (.358), team SLG (.455) is third, one point behind the Dodgers, and the Cubs’ team OPS (.809) is second to the Rays (.895).
• NICO NOTES: Nico Hoerner is hitting .367/.406/.489 (33-for-85) with 19 runs scored, five doubles, two home runs, nine RBI and nine stolen bases, having reached base safely in 19 of 20 games played. His 33 hits lead the major leagues while the 19 runs leads the National League and his .367 BA ranks fourth in MLB, one point behind Brandon Nimmo for third. Also:

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Dodgers lineup:

Marcus Stroman, RHP vs. Clayton Kershaw, LHP

Marcus Stroman is off to a fantastic start to his season, having allowed just two runs in 24 innings, with 25 strikeouts.

He threw four shutout innings against the Dodgers last July 9 in his first game back from injury, his only appearance against them in 2022.

I look for Stroman’s dominance to continue.

Hard to believe Clayton Kershaw is in his 16th MLB season. He’s still going right along, as good as ever. His last win was his 200th and he is 167 strikeouts short of 3,000 for his career.

Last year, Kershaw dominated the Cubs in two starts: 10 hits, one walk and one earned run in 14⅔ innings, with 12 strikeouts. This is a better Cubs team, though, and one of the new acquisitions, Eric Hosmer, has hit Kershaw fairly well: .316 (12-for-38) with two doubles and a home run.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Dodgers site True Blue LA. If you do go there to interact with Dodgers fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

The 2023 Game Thread procedure will be like last year’s, similar to what we’ve used for Spring Training.

You’ll find the game preview posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game, including the First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread, as well as the recap when it’s published. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at 90 minutes after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.