Chicago Cubs vs. San Diego Padres preview, Tuesday 4/25, 6:40 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Tuesday notes...

• THE NICO FILES: Nico Hoerner has reached base in 20 of the Cubs’ 21 games this season. He is the 19th Cub to go 20 for 21. The previous one was Sammy Sosa, in 2003. Seven reached in all 21: Jimmy Sheckard (1911), Frank Demaree (1936), Phil Cavarretta (1946), Lee Walls (1958), Derrek Lee (2007) and Aramis Ramirez twice (2008 and 2011). Ramirez did not reach in his 22nd game either year. All five others did. Lee kept his streak going the longest, through 32 games. The next-longest streaks within the team’s first 32 games are 28, by Cavaretta, and 26, by Alfonso Soriano (2007). Hoerner has an active streak of 19 games. Cavarretta also had 19 in a row during the first 21 games, in 1949. Ron Santo had 20 straight in 1970 after failing to reach on Opening Day. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• HE’S HOT: Cody Bellinger, last 18 games since April 3: .348/.425/.638 (24-for-69) with five doubles, five home runs and 18 runs scores.
• SO IS HE: Yan Gomes, last seven games since April 11: .367/.387/.667 (11-for-30) with three home runs, seven runs scored and only two strikeouts.
• HE’S NOT: Dansby Swanson, last 10 games since April 14: .189/.362/.216 (7-for-37) with 15 strikeouts. He has drawn 10 walks in those 10 games, though.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Padres lineup:

Justin Steele, LHP vs. Blake Snell, LHP

Justin Steele is off to an outstanding start to his 2023 season. All four of his starts have been good-to-excellent.

Last year he faced the Padres once, June 13 at Wrigley Field. He threw seven outstanding innings, allowing just one run with no walks. The Cubs lost that game because, well, bullpen. Hoping for better this time.

Blake Snell, who was the American League Cy Young Award winner in 2018, has not had a good go of things since then — a 3.94 ERA in 89 starts over the last five seasons. This year he’s off to a rough start, allowing multiple runs in all four of his starts, and he’s walked 13 in 18 innings. Perhaps the Cubs can take advantage of that.

Snell faced the Cubs twice in 2017, which is largely irrelevant now. Most current Cubs have never faced him. Trey Mancini is 3-for-10 with a home run off Snell.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Padres market territories).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Padres site Gaslamp Ball. If you do go there to interact with Padres 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.