Chicago Cubs vs. New York Mets preview, Thursday 5/25, 6:40 CT

Today’s roster move: Here

Thursday notes...

• THE MOREL FILES: Christopher Morel did not hit a home run last night, which would have set a team record of six consecutive games. He did not score a run, leaving him 1 short of Hank Sauer’s mark of scoring in 13 straight games. But his fifth-inning single extended his season-long hitting streak to 13 games.

Danny Green set the Cubs’ start-of-season mark of 15 games in 1901, first season of the Modern Era. Stan Hack tied Green in 1938, but the record stood for another half century, until Vance Law hit safely in his first 16 games in 1988. Morel’s streak is the longest since then. Aramis Ramirez had a 12-game streak in 2007. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

• RUN SCORING: The Cubs set a Modern Era franchise record by scoring last night. That gave them at least one run in each of their first 48 games in 2023, and in 58 straight games dating to September 25, 2022. This 58-game run is the team’s longest since scoring in 70 consecutive games from August 12, 2021-May 4, 2022. The franchise record for such things is 127, set in 1958-59.
• DANSBY FOR THE DEFENSE: Dansby Swanson has gone 31 straight games since April 20 without committing an error (104 total chances) and his seven defensive runs saved are tied with Wander Franco for the lead among major league shortstops, according to Fangraphs.
• SEIYA FACTS: Seiya Suzuki has a .400 BA (14-for-35) with a 1.004 OPS against lefthanded pitching this season. He has hit .327/.433/.735 (16-for-49) with five doubles, five home runs and 10 walks in his last 14 games since May 8.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Mets lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Carlos Carrasco, RHP

Interesting matchup tonight between two pitchers who have had injury issues.

Kyle Hendricks is making his season debut, having not pitched a MLB game since July 5, 2022. He’s had shoulder problems which appear to have cleared up with rest and rehabilitation. His last three rehab outings at Triple-A Iowa were excellent and reminiscent of the old Professor. The last one was 82 pitches, so Kyle might be able to throw up to 90 pitches tonight.

Hendricks did not face the Mets last year. His last start against them was June 17, 2021 at Citi Field, when he threw six shutout innings, allowing just two hits, striking out seven. The current Met who hits him best is Tommy Pham (.318, 7-for-22, two home runs).

Welcome back, Kyle. Here’s hoping for great success. (The pitch selection chart below is from 2022.)

Also, LOL:

Carlos Carrasco made three starts in April, then landed on the IL with elbow inflammation due to a bone chip. He returned May 19 vs. the Guardians and allowed five hits, two walks and five runs in five innings.

He threw six shutout innings vs. the Cubs July 14, 2022 at Wrigley Field, striking out six. I would note that a lot of the Cubs who played in that game are no longer on the team. Here’s hoping the Cubs can help send Carrasco into retirement after this year.

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.