Chicago Cubs vs. San Diego Padres preview, Sunday 6/4, 4:30 CT

Sunday notes...

• THE (WEST) COAST IS CLEAR: The Cubs played their first regular-season game on the West Coast on April 22, 1958, when they lost to the Dodgers, 4-2, in front of 39,459 at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Ernie Banks homered off Johnny Podres for the Cubs’ only runs.

Today’s game at Petco Park in San Diego will be their 1,000th on the West Coast.

Before today, they have played:

360 at Los Angeles
358 at San Francisco
254 at San Diego
11 at Seattle
9 at Oakland
7 at Anaheim

The Cubs are 465-534 in those games, but actually have winning records against four of the six teams: 130-124 vs. the Padres, 7-4 vs. the Mariners, 7-2 vs. the Athletics and 5-2 vs. the Angels. They are 160-198 vs. the Giants and 156-204 vs. the Dodgers. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

• STARTING PITCHING: Over the team’s last five games, Cubs starters have posted a 1.59 ERA (five earned runs in 28⅓ innings).
• DANSBY FOR THE DEFENSE: Dansby Swanson has gone 40 consecutive games at shortstop since April 20 without committing an error (139 total chances). Per Fangraphs, Swanson’s seven defensive runs saved rank tied for second among major league shortstops (Wander Franco has nine).
• IN A SLUMP: Since an RBI single in the seventh inning May 13 in Minnesota, Tucker Barnhart is 0-for-17 with five walks and seven strikeouts.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Padres lineup:

Marcus Stroman, RHP vs. Ryan Weathers, LHP

As you know, Marcus Stroman’s most recent start, last Monday against the Rays, was just outstanding.

He faced the Padres a couple of times in 2021 (and not last year), but this is a very different San Diego team. One current Padre who has faced him a lot has done well: Xander Bogaerts (.316, 12-for-38, two doubles, three home runs).

Ryan Weathers started the year in San Diego’s rotation, made three starts that were decent, but for some reason got put in the bullpen (and threw an inning of relief against the Cubs April 27 at Wrigley Field). Then he got sent to Triple-A Reno for a while. (No, not to watch a man die.)

He returned in mid-May and has made three starts that weren’t as good as the first three.

So, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Statcast

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 Padres site Gaslamp Ball. If you do go there to interact with Padres 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.