The Cubs have lost 2 out of 3 in their last 4 series, including last weekend in Chicago against the San Francisco Giants. By the way, the extra innings game on Sunday Night Baseball wound up being the fourth-largest primetime audience of the MLB season. The Giants didn’t look like one of the worst teams in the sport and the Cubs, despite losing, still had the veneer of a good team despite being 8-22 in their last 30 games.
They managed to win their finale in Colorado yesterday, and it looks like this turn through the rotation will feature everything they’ve got from the starting pitching front. Javier Assad reliever Jameson Taillon in that thrilling Sunday Nighter and pitched 6.1 shutout innings, allowing only a hit and a walk to go with 5 strikeouts. Ben Brown is their best starter and shutout the Giants for 5.1 innings in the Cubs’ Saturday win, allowing only a hit and a walk to go with 5 strikeouts. Meanwhile, Colin Rea has thrown the second-most innings on Chicago’s staff (69.1 IP). He has yet to have a start where he hasn’t allowed a run, though, on three separate occasions he’s allowed only 1 run.
When we last saw the Giants at home, one of the coolest things that you will ever see in a baseball game happened. If you don’t know what I’m talking about for some reason…
All I can say is that I was listening to this game on radio until the 9th inning comeback started and I decided to switch over to watch Eldridge’s at bat. I’m not kidding, I turned the game on as he stepped in to the box. As great as Krukow and Kuiper’s hogs out banter was before the final pitch, let history never forget Jon Miller’s call.
The Giants are also throwing their best part of the rotation at the Cubs too, though, as Logan Webb has looked great since returning from the IL and Landen Roupp and Trevor McDonald at home is a good matchup.
The Cubs need this series very badly. The Giants are playing for vibes. Even with baseball, you’d like to think that the more relaxed team has the advantage.
Series overview
Who: San Francisco Giants (28-41) vs. Chicago Cubs (35-34)
Where: Oracle Park | San Francisco, California
When: Friday at 7:15pm PT, Saturday at 7:05pm PT, 12:10pm PT
National broadcasts: ABC/ESPN (Sunday)
Projected starters
Friday: Landen Roupp (RHP 5-6, 4.00 ERA) vs. Javier Assad (RHP 3-1, 4.73 ERA)
Saturday: Trevor McDonald (RHP 2-3, 4.15 ERA) vs. Ben Brown (RHP 2-2, 1.74 ERA)
Sunday: Logan Webb (RHP 3-4, 3.88 ERA) vs. Colin Rea (RHP 5-4, 5.19 ERA)
Players to watch
Cubs
Just 4 Cubs have been better than league average since May 1st: Michael Busch (166 wRC+), Pete Crow-Armstrong (145), Ian Happ (136), literally Michael Conforto (114), so let’s focus on the recent underperformers:
Nico Hoerner: The Oakland native and Stanford alum has done well when he’s returned to the Bay Area. He’s a career .275/.351/.392 at Oracle Park in 14 games (57 PA), but over his last 37 games (162 PA), he’s hitting just .208/.290/.257 (60 wRC+).
Alex Bregman: He was practically nonexistent against the Giants (0-for-12) and is hitting just .236/.317/.338 since May 1st (167 PA). Over the last two weeks, it’s just .178/.296/.333.
Seiya Suzuki: Since May 1st, his line has been a substandard .207/.280/.348 (74 wRC+), but over the past two weeks, he’s picked up his production, slashing .279/.326/.512 (134 wRC+), hitting well enough that he became the subject of a Ken Rosenthal thinkpiece about the Cubs possibly moving him for some badly needed pitching. He did well against the Giants (3-for-9 with a homer) and is on an 8-game hitting streak.
Giants
Bryce Eldridge: Of course.
Trevor McDonald: He was the starter of that Sunday night thriller and he’s bounced back nicely from that 7-run disaster against the White Sox (not entirely his fault anyway), but this entire series is a test to see just how much familiarity persists between these two teams with so few games between the rematch.
Ryan Walker: He has been recalled from Sacramento and taking Carson Seymour’s spot. Seymour wound up being batting practice for the Cubs and Nats in his two appearances this season, but Walker has been that to a large degree, too. We’ll see if his scoreless wizardry in the minors comes back up to the big leagues with him. The Giants could certainly use some outs from the bullpen.
Prediction time
The Cubs are 1-6 at Oracle Park over the past two seasons, so, I’ll predict that the Giants won’t get swept?
