Chicago Cubs vs. New York Mets preview, Wednesday 5/24, 6:40 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Wednesday notes...

• THE MOREL FILES: Most home runs, first 13 games of a season:

11: Mike Schmidt, Phillies, 1976
9: Larry Walker, Rockies, 1997
9: Luis Gonzalez, Diamondbacks, 2001
9: Barry Bonds, Giants, 2004
9: Albert Pujols, Cardinals, 2006
9: Chris Shelton, Tigers, 2006
9: Alex Rodriguez, Yankees, 2007
9: Aristides Aquino, Reds, 2019
9: Christopher Morel, Cubs, 2023 (12 games so far) (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

• MORE MOREL: Morel’s streak of 12 games with at least one hit and one run has tied the franchise record set by Hank Sauer in 1954 (MLB record: 16, set by Doc Cramer in 1944. NL record: 15, set by Steve Finley in 1997). His streak of 11 straight games with at least one run scored is the second-longest in franchise history behind Sauer (13 in 1954). And, his 12-game hitting streak is the longest by any Cub this year. (Longest in MLB this year: 20 games by Mauricio Dubon.)
• EVEN MORE MOREL: Morel has hit 25 home runs in his first 125 career MLB games. The most home runs by any Cubs player in the first 125 games of his career is 27, set by Ian Happ in 2017-18.
• RUN SCORING: The Cubs have scored in each of their first 47 games to start the 2023 season. That ties a Modern Era franchise record, set in 1995. The all-time club record for such things is 91 games, set in 1898.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Mets lineup:

Marcus Stroman, RHP vs. Kodai Senga, RHP

Marcus Stroman came off a bad start in Minnesota to have yet another good one in Philadelphia on Friday, and the Cubs won the game, too.

He faced his former team once last year, July 16, 2022 at Wrigley Field. He didn’t make it out of the fifth inning, but allowed just one run and struck out six. It was just his second start after coming off the injured list with a shoulder issue.

One just like that, but a couple innings longer, would be great.

Kodai Senga is someone many of you wanted the Cubs to sign out of Japan this past offseason. He’s put together eight solid starts for the Mets with a 3.77 ERA, though his walk rate is a bit high — 26 in 43 innings, 5.4 per nine innings, so maybe the Cubs can take advantage of that.

In his last start, May 17 vs. the Rays, he threw six innings and allowed one run, striking out 12. That’s definitely not what we want tonight.

Small sample size alert, but something to keep an eye on:

Senga, four starts at home: 1.57 ERA, 1.174 WHIP, one HR in 23 innings
Senga, four starts on road: 6.30 ERA, 1.750 WHIP, five HR in 20 innings

Like I said, small sample size, but you never know. He’s obviously never faced the Cubs or anyone on their active roster.

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 Mets market territories).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Mets site Amazin’ Avenue. If you do go there to interact with Mets 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.