Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals preview, Wednesday 7/19, 7:05 CT

Wednesday notes...

• RUNS vs. THE NATS/EXPOS FRANCHISE: The 17 runs scored by the Cubs last night were two more than they ever had scored before against the Nationals, going back to their start, in 1969, as the Montreal Expos. The Cubs had scored 15 twice against the Expos — and lost both games, 17-15 at home in 1985 and 16-15 at Montreal in 2000. They had won with 14 runs at home twice against the Expos, and with 14 once at Washington. The Cubs’ 14-run margin of victory last night was their biggest over the Expos/Nationals. Their previous high came in a 13-0 win at Montreal in 1998. Last night’s game was the 639th between the teams. It was the 29th in which the Cubs scored at least 10 runs. They have won all but the two losses with 15. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• MORE ON RUNS: The Cubs’ 17-run outburst Tuesday moved them up to fifth in the N.L. and 10th in MLB with 450 runs.
• WORDS OF WISDOM: Patrick Wisdom, last six games since July 7: .333/.450/1.000 (5-for-15), a double, three home runs, only three strikeouts. Play him while he’s hot!
• HEATING UP: Seiya Suzuki, last 11 games since July 4: .333/.367/.511 (15-for-45), a triple, two home runs.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Nationals lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Trevor Williams, RHP

Let’s forget about Kyle Hendricks’ last outing, shall we? Okay. Write it off to the wind blowing out and him missing his spots.

Hendricks didn’t pitch in the series at Washington in May, so the last time he faced the Nats was July 31, 2021, right after the Big Selloff. However, most of those Nats aren’t on the team anymore. (In fact, only two Cubs besides Hendricks who played in that game are still on the team — Ian Happ and Patrick Wisdom.)

The only current Nats player who has more than a handful of at-bats vs. Kyle is Corey Dickerson (4-for-16). Current Nats are batting .180 (9-for-50) against Hendricks with one home run (Keibert Ruiz).

Trevor Williams threw 5⅓ scoreless innings against the Cubs May 2 in Washington. That’s by far his best start of the year, and over his last six starts: 5.14 ERA, 1.571 WHIP, six homers in 28 innings. In his last outing, against the Cardinals July 14, he didn’t make it out of the third inning.

This will be Williams’ first start at Wrigley Field since the Cubs traded him to the Mets in July 2021 as part of the Javy Báez/Pete Crow-Armstrong deal, though he did throw three scoreless innings of relief against the Cubs at Wrigley July 14, 2022.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. You can find out if Marquee is available via a provider in your area here.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today..

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Nationals site Federal Baseball. If you do go there to interact with Nats 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.