Chicago Cubs vs. Miami Marlins preview, Saturday 4/29, 3:05 CT

Today’s roster move: Here

Saturday notes...

• GETTING WALKED OFF: With Friday night’s defeat, the Cubs have suffered at least one walk-off, 3-2 loss in each of the past five seasons: Two in 2018, then one in 2019 and 2020, two in 2021, and one last year and this. Last night’s was their 124th such loss since 1914, the first season for which there is searchable play-level data available. It was the third of those losses at Miami. The previous two were in 1993, in 15 innings, and in 2009. The Cubs have never lost a 3-2 walk-off at Colorado or Washington. They have won 3-2 on walk-offs 134 times, most recently on April 10 against the Mariners. They have done it once against the Marlins, on May 8, 2019, in 11 innings. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• THE NICO FILES: Nico Hoerner’s single Friday night extended his on-base streak to 23 games. The last Cub to have a longer streak was Kris Bryant, who had a 26-game streak from April 17 to May 17, 2019.
• HOME RUN STREAKING: Nelson Velázquez’ homer Friday gave the Cubs home runs in nine consecutive games. The last time they had a longer streak was 2021, when they homered in 16 straight games from August 23 to September 10. The franchise record is 17 games, set in 1998.
• STARTING PITCHING: Cubs starting pitchers enter Saturday’s game with the third-best ERA in MLB (3.05) behind the Braves and Rays, both at 3.02.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Marlins lineup:

Caleb Kilian, RHP vs. Edward Cabrera, RHP

Caleb Kilian is making his season debut for the Cubs this afternoon. Last year, he had one decent start for the Cubs and two bad ones. The pitch chart below is from his three MLB starts in 2022.

This year at Triple-A Iowa, he got hit hard in his season debut (eight runs in 2⅓ innings) but since then: nine innings, seven hits, one run, five strikeouts.

Hopefully he’s on the upswing. He has never faced the Marlins or anyone on their active roster.

Edward Cabrera threw five no-hit innings vs. the Cubs August 5, 2022 at Wrigley Field and five innings allowing three runs against them September 19, 2022 in Miami. Overall his 2022 season, at age 24, was promising.

This year, he has struggled, particularly with control. He is currently leading MLB in a category pitchers don’t want to lead the league in — walks, 20 of them in 22 innings. So, I would preach patience for Cubs hitters today.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Fox-TV. If you look at this coverage map you can see the other Fox game today was supposed to be Braves/Mets, but that game has been rained out, so the Cubs game should be on all the Fox affiliates nationally. Fox announcers: Adam Amin and A.J. Pierzynski. If for any reason the Cubs game is not on the Fox affiliate in your market and you subscribe to MLB.TV or MLB Extra Innings, you should be able to watch via those services.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Marlins site Fish Stripes. If you do go there to interact with Marlins 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.