Chicago Cubs vs. Arizona Diamondbacks preview, Sunday 9/10, 1:20 CT

Sunday notes...

• BEING SWEPT: The Cubs have not been swept in any of their previous nine four-game series against the Diamondbacks. The closest they came was last year, when they were beaten at home, 3-1, 10-6 and 7-6 before winning, 5-4, thanks to back-to-back homers leading off the eighth inning by Patrick Wisdom and Frank Schwindel. The Cubs have been swept in five series this year: at Miami, at Houston, at home vs. the Reds, at Anaheim and at home vs. the Phillies. The last of those was June 27-29. They have played 64 games since then. The last four-game series in which the Cubs were swept was June 13-16 of last year, at home vs. the Padres. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• A HOT HITTER: Cody Bellinger, last 10 games since September 1: .342/.364/.659 (14-for-41) with a double, four home runs, 11 RBI and eight runs scored.
• FACTS OF STEELE: Justin Steele’s 2.49 ERA leads all qualified MLB pitchers, and his 2.18 ERA in 17 home starts is tied for the best in MLB with... Saturday’s Arizona starter, Zac Gallen.
• HAPPY CLIMATE: Julian Merryweather, last 21 appearances since July 21: 1.96 ERA, 0.870 WHIP, 34 strikeouts in 23 innings.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Diamondbacks lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Joe Mantiply, LHP

Kyle Hendricks keeps cranking out innings and useful starts. He’s no longer the 2016 version of The Professor, but he’s close to the 2018-19 version, which was pretty good.

One thing he’s done well this year is not walk guys. He’s walked 1.6 per nine innings, or put another way, 20 walks among 481 batters faced, 4.15 percent. That’s just excellent. It’s mainly having command of his changeup that makes Kyle successful.

I am not going to post the boxscore link from Kyle’s last start vs. the D-backs, May 22, 2022. It was... bad. You can look it up if you want, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The one guy on the D-backs who drives him nuts is, of all people, Jace Peterson: .450/.522/1.000 (9-for-20), three doubles, a triple, two home runs. Stop that guy and this should be a good day.

Joe Mantiply has been announced as Arizona's starter. Given that he's a lefthanded reliever who threw in the ninth inning Thursday, I have to assume he's an opener today and so the rest of this preview is going to be about the guy who was previously listed as the starter.

Brandon Pfaadt was one of the Diamondbacks’ top prospects entering this year and a Top 100 prospect in all of MLB.

The results for him at the MLB level so far... not good. He’s made 15 starts and has a 6.27 ERA and 1.460 WHIP and has allowed 17 home runs in 74⅔ innings.

He has never faced the Cubs or anyone on the Cubs’ active roster.

Incidentally, per MLB’s official pronunciation guide, his last name is pronounced FOUGHT. (His baseball-reference page agrees.)

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 Diamondbacks site AZ Snakepit. If you do go there to interact with D-backs 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 — also see the note at the top of this preview.

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.