Chicago Cubs vs. San Diego Padres preview, Monday 6/5, 8:10 CT

Monday notes...

• WINNING IN SAN DIEGO: This is the seventh time that the Cubs have won two of three to start a four-game series at San Diego. They went 3-3 in the finales of the previous six series.

Their last Game 4 win was in 2010, after they had won the first 2 and lost the third. They had done the same in 1969, in the first such series. In 2005, the Cubs won, lost and won in the first 3, as they have currently, then won again. In 1996 and 2014, they went WLWL. They went LWWL in 1976. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

• DOUBLING THEIR PLEASURE: The Cubs have turned 58 double plays so far this year, third in MLB behind the Rockies and Orioles, and have had 13 in their last 16 games since May 20.
• MORE IN THE FIELD: Dansby Swanson has gone 40 consecutive games at shortstop since April 20 without committing an error (144 total chances).
• HE’S HOT: Julian Merryweather, last nine outings since May 16: 0.96 ERA, 1.57 FIP, 14 strikeouts in 9⅓ innings.

And in case you were wondering:

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Padres lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Blake Snell, LHP

Kyle Hendricks improved over his first start with his outing against the Rays last Tuesday. He’s still a work in progress.

The last time he pitched in San Diego, May 9, 2022, he came within one out of a complete-game shutout, but was lifted after 116 pitches. Some say that game might have been the source of Hendricks’ shoulder issues that forced him to miss nearly a year. Before that one, Kyle hadn’t thrown that many pitches in a game since 2016.

But anyway, here he is, and more shutout ball vs. the Padres would be nice.

Blake Snell was getting hit hard by just about everyone this year. After allowing six runs in four innings to the Red Sox May 19, he had a 5.40 ERA.

But his last two starts, vs. the Nats and Marlins, have been better.

It’s a small sample size, but Snell has been much worse at Petco (5.68 ERA in five starts) than on the road (3.52 ERA in six starts). Might be just noise, as he was pretty much even home/road last year.

Yan Gomes (5-for-13, two doubles, a home run) and Trey Mancini (4-for-11, a home run) have hit him well in the past.

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 Padres market territories).

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.