Chicago Cubs vs. Miami Marlins preview, Thursday 9/24, 1:20 CT

Thursday notes…

PICKING UP THE PIECES: This is the 11th of the Cubs’ 52 series in which they lost the first two games. They are 7-3 in third games, including 3-2 at home. They beat the Pirates on April 12, the Braves on May 14 and the Cardinals on July 5. They lost to the Brewers and Astros in back-to-back series on May 20 and 24. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
DAY vs. NIGHT: The Cubs are just 34-33 in day games this season. A win today will assure them of finishing with a winning record in sunshine if they play one day game at Boston in their final series. They have finished below .500 in only one of the past 10 full seasons: 32-39 in 2021. They were 8-8 in the 60-game 2020 season. The Cubs are 23-17 in day games at home this year, including 11-5 in day games following night games. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
WINNING ON THURSDAYS: The Cubs are 10-3 on Thursday, their best record on any day of the week. They are 15-10 on Saturday, 15-11 on Wednesday and 11-7 on Monday. At home the Cubs are 5-1 on Thursday. They are 9-2 on Monday, 8-5 on Saturday and 7-6 on Wednesday. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: The Cubs lead 7-3 heading to the seventh, only to give up five to the Mets and trail 8-7. A two-run homer by Jody Davis gives them the lead back, but the Mets score in the eighth to tie the game 9-9. Bobby Bonds homers in the bottom of the eighth and the Cubs hold on for a 10-9 win. This brings them within three games of the NL East lead in that strike season’s “second half.” After the game on the WGN radio broadcast, Lou Boudreau complains that only 2,555 came to see the Cubs in a “pennant race game,” which was technically true, three games back with 10 remaining. The Cubs lost seven of those 10 and finished well out of any postseason play. That Cubs/Mets game happened 45 years ago today, Thursday, Sept. 24, 1981.

Cubs lineup:

Marlins lineup:

Matthew Boyd, LHP vs. Tyler Phillips, RHP

Matthew Boyd threw well in his last start, Saturday at Cincinnati, allowing the Reds just two hits and two runs (one earned) in five innings.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that he’s been much worse at Wrigley Field this year (5.53 ERA in 10 starts) than on the road (2.86 ERA in 11 starts).

He has not faced the Marlins as a Cub, either this year or last year. No current member of the Marlins has ever faced him, so maybe that’ll be a positive this afternoon.

The Cubs scored three runs in five innings off Tyler Phillips Sept. 6 at Miami, including Pete Crow-Armstrong’s 40th home run of the season.

Since then Phillips hasn’t gotten out of the fourth inning in two starts, and hasn’t thrown more than 68 pitches. Perhaps the Cubs can get to him early today.

Here is the weather forecast for the area around Wrigley Field.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

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You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

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