Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals preview, Tuesday 5/2, 6:05 CT

Today’s roster move: Here

Tuesday notes...

• ABOUT THAT PITCHING: The Cubs have a team ERA of 3.55. A year ago, through the same number of games, it was 4.19. The year before that, it was 5.01. It has been 3.55 or lower through 28 games in only three seasons since 1996: 3.24 in 2003, 2.44 in 2016 and 3.48 in 2018. This is the 21st time in the Live Ball Era that it has been 3.55 or lower. Seven of the 21 came in 1963-78, including the lowest of all, 2.19, in 1963. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• THE DANSBY FILES: Dansby Swanson was 3-for-5 Monday with a double, homer and two RBI. His six games of three or more hits this season are tied for the most in the majors with Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. He has reached safely at least three times in a game 12 times this season, the most in the majors. Dansby has drawn 21 walks this season, tied for third-most in the N.L., while his 16.9 percent walk rate is fifth in the N.L. Entering this season, his career walk rate stood at 8.6 percent.
• WORDS OF WISDOM: Patrick Wisdom hit his 10th homer of the season Saturday in the team’s 26th game. He is just the sixth Cub to reach the 10-homer mark in 26 or fewer team games. The others: Gabby Hartnett in 1925, Hank Sauer in 1954, Billy Williams in 1970, Sammy Sosa in 2002 and Alfonso Soriano in 2011.
• HITTING WITH TWO STRIKES: The Cubs lead the majors with a .220 BA (119-for-540), .297 OBP and 62 RBI when batting with two strikes in the count. The team’s .359 SLG ranks second, and the Cubs’ 16 home runs with two strikes are tied for third-most.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Nationals lineup:

Hayden Wesneski, RHP vs. Trevor Williams, RHP

Statcast

Statcast

Hayden Wesneski righted his ship last week with a good start against the Padres. He’s now got a 2.76 ERA and 0.980 WHIP over his last three starts, with just two walks and 11 strikeouts over 16⅓ innings. That seems more like the Wesneski we saw late last year.

He’s never faced the Nats or anyone on their active roster.

Hey, look! It’s former Cub Trevor Williams, who’s actually pitched fairly well since he was sent to the Mets as part of the Javier Báez deal. (And the Cubs will surely take the return from that deal, Pete Crow-Armstrong.)

This year Williams has made five starts and all have been at least decent, with a couple of them pretty good.

Last year he made two relief appearances against the Cubs, allowing one run in 7⅓ innings, with 13 strikeouts.

Among current Cubs, Cody Bellinger is 3-for-8 against Williams with all three hits for extra bases, a double and two home runs.

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 Nationals site Federal Baseball. If you do go there to interact with Nationals 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.