Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants preview, Wednesday 9/6, 1:20 CT

Today's roster move: Here

Wednesday notes...

• ELEVEN TO EIGHT IS MORE THAN A TIME OF DAY: Last night’s win was the Cubs’ 9,616th since the Modern Era began in 1901. It was just their 16th by a score of 11-8, but their third in the past eight seasons. They did it at Cincinnati on June 27, 2015, then at home vs. the Pirates on Sept. 5, 2021 — exactly two years ago yesterday. Only six of the 16 have come at home and none before yesterday had been against the Giants. Last night’s game was the 1,006th between the teams in Chicago since 1901. The Cubs won by 11-8 twice at the Polo Grounds when the Giants were based in New York: on Sept. 21, 1944, and July 31, 1952. The Cubs have lost 12 games by 11-8, never to the Giants. The last three were at home against the Cardinals, in 1989, 2003 and 2004. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• HE’S HOT: Seiya Suzuki, last 25 games since August 9: .362/.408/.734 (34-for-94) with 10 doubles, two triples, seven home runs, 18 RBI and 21 runs scored.
• SO IS THE TEAM: Since being 26-36 June 8 after a sweep at the hands of the Angels, the Cubs are 49-28. Only the Dodgers (48-26) and Braves (52-23) are better among N.L. teams in that time span.
• HOME SWEET HOME: The Cubs are 9-3 in their last 12 home games, 17-6 at Wrigley Field since July 18 and need just two more home wins to clinch a winning season at Wrigley. They last had a winning season at home in 2020 (19-14) and last in a full season in 2019 (51-30).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

The Giants lineup was not available at posting time. Please check the BCB Twitter feed for the Giants lineup.

Jordan Wicks, LHP vs. Alex Wood, LHP

For Jordan Wicks, this will be his Wrigley Field debut after two successful starts on the road.

There’s not much more that can be said about Wicks other than: Keep up the great work! Wicks has obviously never faced the Giants or anyone on their active roster, though they have done better vs. LH starters (23-16) than RH starters (47-53) this year.

Alex Wood had some good years for the Braves and Dodgers, but since coming to the Giants in 2021 — one good year, one bad year, one year (this year) where they don’t seem to know what to do with him.

He started the year in the rotation. With a 5.17 ERA by late June, that ended and he’s been pitching in the middle of games with an opener. A couple of starts in July did not go well. Over his last five relief appearances he hasn’t allowed a run in 9⅓ innings. So... that’s good, I guess. He threw 70 pitches in his last outing, so could probably go five in this game. As you can see below, he’s now a three-pitch pitcher, which doesn’t usually work well for a starter these days.

Wood has not faced the Cubs since 2019, so most current Cubs haven’t faced him much. Ian Happ and Patrick Wisdom have homered off him.

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 Giants site McCovey Chronicles. If you do go there to interact with Giants 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.