Chicago Cubs vs. New York Yankees preview, Sunday 7/9, 12:35 CT

Sunday notes...

• THE LAST TWO YEARS: On Sunday, June 13, 2021, the Cubs beat the Cardinals, 2-0, to complete a sweep of a 3-game series and extend their winning streak to five games. Their record was 38-27 and they were tied for first place. The following night, the Cubs lost to the Mets at New York. They lost the next two days, too, and never had at least 10 more wins than losses the rest of the season. They were 42-33, still tied for first, after no-hitting the Dodgers at Los Angeles on June 24, then dropped 11 in a row, to fall to fourth place, nine games out of first. The Big Sell-Off soon followed. Another loss this afternoon would be their 200th since their high-water mark of 38-27 in 2021. They have won only 147 games, for a winning percentage of .425.
• IF ONLY EVERY DAY COULD BE FRIDAY: 2023 Cubs record, by day of the week: Monday, 5-5. Tuesday: 9-5. Wednesday: 6-7. Thursday: 3-6. Friday: 11-2. Saturday: 5-10. Sunday: 2-12.
• HE’S STILL HOT: Cody Bellinger’s 13-game hitting streak came to an end Saturday when he went 0-for-4. Still, over his last 14 games: .442/.464/.615 (23-for-52) with three doubles, two home runs and only four strikeouts.
• SHUTTING THEM OUT: Friday night’s shutout of the Yankees was the Cubs’ 10th of the 2023 season. That’s tied with the Blue Jays for the MLB lead. The Cubs had just 11 shutouts all of last year. The last time any Cubs team had more than 11 shutouts in a season was 2018, when they had 18.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Yankees lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Domingo Germán, RHP

Kyle Hendricks has made seven starts and thrown 47⅔ innings.

That’s already worth 1.1 bWAR, which is fifth-best among all Cubs pitchers. Over his last five starts: 1.95 ERA, 0.711 WHIP, just five walks in 32⅓ innings.

Right now, he’s the Cubs’ best and most consistent starting pitcher.

Kyle has faced the Yankees just once, and that was back in 2017 at Wrigley Field. No one on the Yankees’ current active roster played in that game. There is one current Yankee who has hit him well: Harrison Bader (9-for-24, .375, four doubles).

Domingo Germán, as you likely know, threw MLB’s 24th perfect game June 28 against the A’s.

He’s had other good starts this year but apart from the perfect game, his ERA this year is 5.05 and his WHIP 1.226 and he’s allowed 15 home runs in the 76⅔ other innings he’s thrown in 2023.

So he’s either really, REALLY good or pretty mediocre. (And the team he threw a perfect game against is... well, they’re not very good.)

Germán has never faced the Cubs and most current Cubs have not faced him. One who has a few times is Trey Mancini (5-for-18, .278, two walks).

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. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Brewers market territories).

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

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Yankees site Pinstripe Alley. If you do go there to interact with Yankees 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.