Chicago Cubs vs. Pittsburgh Pirates preview, Wednesday 6/14, 7:05 CT

Wednesday notes...

• CUBS/BUCS BLOWOUTS: Tuesday night’s win was the Cubs’ 150th against the Pirates since 1901 in which the Cubs scored at least 10 runs. They have won the last 53 such games. Their most recent loss, their 10th, was on April 21, 1991, at Pittsburgh, by 13-12 in 11 innings. The Cubs have tallied 10 or more runs in 1,296 games since 1901. Their record in those games is 1,212-82-2. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• DEFEATING THE PIRATES RECENTLY: Since the start of 2015, the Cubs are 87-56 against the Pirates, a .608 winning percentage. They are 47-22, .681, at Wrigley Field. They have outscored the Pirates in all games, 726-563, and at Wrigley, 384-247. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• HAPP-ENINGS: Pittsburgh-area native Ian Happ improved his career numbers against the Pirates to .317/.409/.568 in 83 games, with 15 home runs. He has reached base safely in 32 straight games and 41 straight starts vs. PIttsburgh dating to July 31, 2020.
• THE MOREL FILES: Christopher Morel broke an 0-for-21 slump Saturday in San Francisco. Since then he is batting .444/.500/1.111 (4-for-9) with two home runs and a walk — and no strikeouts.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Pirates lineup:

Drew Smyly, LHP vs. Osvaldo Bido, RHP

Drew Smyly’s numbers after 13 starts this year are almost identical to what he posted in 22 starts for the Cubs last year — so this would appear to be his level of performance, which is actually pretty good.

Last year he made one good start and one mediocre one vs. the Pirates, but he has not faced them in more than a calendar year and the Bucs are a very different team than they were then.

Current Pirates are batting .310 (22-for-71) against Smyly with five home runs, two of them by Bryan Reynolds, who takes pleasure in hitting the Cubs. Hopefully they can stop him in this series.

Osvaldo Bido is making his MLB debut tonight. He’s 27 and has been in the Pirates system since 2017. This year is his second at Triple-A Indianapolis and in 12 appearances (10 starts) he has posted a 4.55 ERA and 1.301 WHIP.

He faced the Iowa Cubs May 17 and Mike Tauchman was in that lineup, so there’s at least one Cub who has seen him before.

Obviously with no MLB experience, there’s no pitch selection chart for Bido.

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 Pirates site Bucs Dugout. If you do go there to interact with Pirates 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.