Chicago Cubs vs. Tampa Bay Rays preview, Tuesday 5/30, 7:05 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Tuesday notes...

• ABOUT THAT SHUTOUT: The Cubs’ shutout over the Rays yesterday is arguably their least likely this century. The Rays took a .709 winning percentage into the game. That is 24 points higher than the percentage of any other team since 2000 that had played at least 50 games of a season when it was blanked by the Cubs.

On June 26, 2005, the Cubs posted a 2-0 victory on the South Side over the White Sox, who had a .685 percentage (50-23) going into the game.

The only four other teams with a percentage above .600 that were shut out by the Cubs:

.667: Dodgers (34-17) when beaten, 7-0, on May 30, 2009
.641: Diamondbacks (82-46) when beaten, 4-0, on August 24, 2002
.638: Giants (67-38), when beaten, 3-0, on July 29, 2003
.627: Mariners (37-22), when beaten, 2-0, on June 7, 2002

The Dodgers were .596 (68-46) when beaten, 2-0, on August 14, 2004. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

• MORE ON SHUTOUTS: Monday’s win was the Cubs’ sixth shutout of 2023. They had just 11 shutouts for the entire 2022 season and only eight in 2021.
• HE’S HOT: Dansby Swanson, last nine games since May 20: .303/.361/.576 (10-for-33) with a double, a triple and two home runs.
• SO IS HE: Seiya Suzuki, last 14 games since May 13: .313/.431/.688 (15-for-48) with three doubles, five home runs, 10 walks and nine runs scored.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Rays lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Shane McClanahan, LHP

Kyle Hendricks is looking to improve on his first outing, which was reasonably good in terms of velocity and pitch selection, less so in command and results.

He faced the Rays April 18, 2022 at Wrigley Field and allowed two runs in 4⅓ innings. I’d like to see better from him tonight.

Hendricks has yet to throw 100 pitches in MLB this year, so there’s no pitch chart available. Showing last year’s chart isn’t relevant because Kyle’s velocity is up a bit this year. There should be a chart available for his next start.

Shane McClanahan has been one of the best pitchers in baseball all year, already posting 2.3 bWAR in just a third of the season. He was the Rays’ first round selectionin 2018, taken seven picks after Nico Hoerner.

McClanahan was Hendricks’ opponent in that 2022 game at Wrigley Field. He allowed two runs (one earned) and struck out nine in six innings. The Cubs’ only run was a home run by Patrick Wisdom. Hey, he hit two on Sunday, maybe he’ll get on one of his hot streaks.

Statcast

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 Rays site DRays Bay. If you do go there to interact with Rays 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.