Chicago Cubs vs. Atlanta Braves preview, Wednesday 9/27, 6:20 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Wednesday notes...

• TYING AN MLB RECORD: The Cubs’ first hit tonight will tie a remarkable all-time record. They will have been no-hit just once in 9,178 games, tying a mark set by the Pirates between Aug. 15, 1971, and Sept. 27, 2012. After being the victims of a perfect game by Sandy Koufax at Dodger Stadium on Sept. 9, 1966, the Cubs made hits in 7,920 games, the longest streak in MLB history. It ended on July 25, 2015, when they were no-hit by Cole Hamels of the Phillies at Wrigley Field. Tonight’s game will be their 1,257th since then, for a total of 9,178. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• THE CUBS’ HOTTEST HITTER: Miles Mastrobuoni, last six games since September 20: .550/.571/.650 (11-for-20) with two doubles and seven runs scored.
• AND ALSO STILL HITTING: Seiya Suzuki, 24 games in September: .376/.433/.731 (35-for-93) with eight doubles, two triples, seven home runs, 24 RBI and 17 runs scored, a strong candidate for N.L. Player of the Month.
• RUN-SCORING UPDATE: The Cubs have scored at least six runs in six of their last seven games and are now up to 798 for the season, and a +100 run differential. Two more runs will give them their first 800-run season since 2018. They are on pace for 823 runs, which would be the most for any Cubs tteam since 2008 (855).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Braves lineup:

Jameson Taillon, RHP vs. Darius Vines, RHP

Jameson Taillon has had such a weird season. He’s had seven starts in which he’s thrown at least five innings and allowed no runs or one run. In five of those he’s allowed two hits or fewer.

But then there are the eight starts where he’s allowed five or more runs, and the four where he hasn’t gone more than three innings.

I’m going to choose to believe that the real Taillon is the one who has a 1.38 ERA and 1.059 WHIP over his last three starts. Granted, two of those were against the awful Rockies.

Taillon has not faced the Braves this year — in fact, not since 2018, so that’s largely irrelevant tonight. If he can have a start where, say, he allows no runs, one run or two runs in six innings (or more), he’ll get his season ERA under 5.00 for the first time. That would also put the Cubs in pretty good position to win.

Go get ‘em, Jamo.

Darius Vines was the Braves’ seventh-round pick out of Cal State-Bakersfield in 2019. He made his MLB debut at the end of August with a decent start (six innings, two runs) against... the Rockies.

Since then he’s made three relief appearances, last against the Nationals September 22, where he allowed three runs in 3⅓ innings and threw 61 pitches. Based on the pitch chart below, he relies a lot on a cutter and four-seamer and doesn’t throw with great velocity.

He’s obviously never faced the Cubs or anyone on their active roster.

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 Braves market territories).

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Braves site Battery Power. If you do go there to interact with Braves 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.