Chicago Cubs vs. Atlanta Braves Preview, Wednesday, 5/22, 6:40 a.m. CT

Wednesday notes:

• UNIQUE DETAILS: With last night’s win, the Cubs are 10-9 in games decided by one run. They have alternated wins and losses in their last seven such matches and have never won or lost more than two games in a row. The Cubs’ 19 one-run games are the most by any team this season. The Pirates have played 18, going 10-8; the Tigers, 17 (8-9); and the Brewers, 16 (9-7). The Cubs, Pirates and Phillies (10-4) are the only teams with double-digit wins. The Cubs have had more than 19 one-run games in their first 49 in just two of the last 50 seasons: 20, in 1993 (9-11) and 24 in 2015 (14-10). They also played 24 in 1919 (11-13), 21 in 1940 (9-12) and 1974 (11-10), and 20 in 1991 (13-7). This is their 10th season with 19, but only the fourth in 50 years. The previous three were 1976 (13-6), 2013 (7-12) and 2021 (10-9). (Courtesy of JohnW53 of BCB)
• KEEP IT NEARBY: The Cubs have spent each of the last 36 days in either second or first place in the NL Central and during that span, they have never been more than two games out of first place.
• TRIPLE: The Cubs lead the National League in triples this year with 11. Mike Tauchman became the 11th player to hit a triple this season for the Cubs with his triple-bagger Sunday against Pittsburgh, moving into a tie for 11th for the head of the team. since 11 different players now have a triple.
• FREE HIM: Mark Leiter Jr., last four games since May 4: 5⅔ innings, four baserunners (0.706 WHIP), nine strikeouts in 20 batters faced. Overall for the season: 0.9 bWAR in 19 appearances.

Here are the details for the day.

Composition of the Cubs:

Braves lineup:

Justin Steele, LHP vs. Max Fried, LHP

Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports

Justin Steele has had a rough time in his last two starts, after a strong first outing following his return from the injured list.

The (potential) good news is that both of those starts were against the Pirates – who knows, maybe they had a great scouting report or tipped the scales.

Hopefully it goes better against Atlanta, even though he had a 5.06 ERA in two starts against them last year. As you can see from the chart below, he started throwing other pitches besides his four-seamer and slider. This might help in the long run.

Max Fried got off to a horrible start this year and had an 18.00 ERA after his first two starts.

Since then, he has a 2.22 ERA in seven starts, although the Padres hit him pretty hard last Friday (nine hits, three runs in 4⅓ innings). Hopefully the Cubs offense can get under the radar enough to do something similar.

Statistics

Statistics

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. You can find out if Marquee is available through a provider in your area here.

Here’s MLB.com’s full live stream page for today.

Game Day MLB.com

Game Overview Baseball-reference.com

Please visit our SB Nation Braves Battery Powered site. If you go there to interact with Braves fans, be respectful, follow their individual site rules, and be a good representation of Cubs fans in general and BCB in particular.

The procedure for the 2024 Game Thread will be similar to last year, similar to what we used for spring training.

You will find the game preview published separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games after evening games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also be posted on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of the week/date).” It will contain all articles related to that particular game, including the first thread and the overflow thread, as well as the recap when it is published. The recap will also be published on the front page in a separate article.

You can also find the preview, the First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread in the “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” box at the bottom of the first page (you can also find them in this link section). The StoryStream for each game can also be found in this section.

The First Pitch thread will be posted five minutes before game time, followed by an overflow thread 90 minutes after scheduled game time.

Discuss it among yourselves.