SEATTLE — Sunday notes…
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THE NUMBER OF THE COUNTING SHALL BE THREE: The Cubs have dropped three games in a row for the first time since May 31-June 3, when they lost at St. Louis, 5-1, then fell twice at home to the Athletics, 2-1 and 5-4 in 10 innings. They are 42-26 since then, a winning percentage of .618. Their last string of four consecutive losses was the final four of a 10-game losing streak, May 23-26. They lost at home to the Astros, 3-0 and 8-5, then were beaten at Pittsburgh, 2-1 and 12-1. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
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AVOIDING SWEEPS: This is the ninth of the Cubs’ 43 series in which they lost the first two games. They avoided a sweep by winning six of eight third games. Their only losses were at home, in back-to-back series, to the Brewers on May 20 and the Astros on May 24. They have won the third game of four such series since then, including two on the road, at Pittsburgh on May 28 and at Colorado on June 11. The win over the Rockies started their current 40-22 surge. They won one other third game after two losses on the road, May 14 at Atlanta. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
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ROAD WARRIORS: The Cubs are 22-18 in third games of series but only 10-10 on the road. A year ago, they finished 15-11 on the road and 27-23 overall. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
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TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: The Cubs enter the ninth trailing the Padres 4-2. RBIs from Hector Villanueva (on a triple, one of just two he had in his career), a sac fly from Jerome Walton and walk-off single by Mark Grace, lead the Cubs to a three-run ninth and 5-4 win over San Diego. It happened 35 years ago today, Friday, Aug. 23, 1991.
Cubs lineup:
The Mariners lineup was not available at posting time. Please check BCB social media for the Mariners lineup. However, there is this clue, after Brendan Donovan was scratched from the Mariners lineup yesterday:
So we might see an old friend today.
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Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Bryce Miller, RHP
Shōta Imanaga had a really good start against the White Sox last Monday, allowing only two hits and striking out 10. One of the hits was a three-run homer by Randal Grichuk, accounting for all the Sox runs off of him.
Despite that, his numbers over his last 12 starts are still good: 2.67 ERA, 1.099 WHIP over 67.1 innings. Still too many homers — 12 in that span — but only 13 walks.
His only career start vs. the Mariners came April 13, 2024 at Wrigley Field. He threw five innings and allowed one unearned run.
Bryce Miller is having a decent enough year if you just look at his overall numbers, but he was pitching pretty much lights-out until early July and then, thunk: 6.57 ERA, 1.568 WHIP in seven starts since then. He missed the first six weeks of the season with bone spurs, and in his first nine games (eight starts) he had a 33.2 percent K rate. But in those last seven the K rate has dropped to 15 percent. That might suggest some arm fatigue.
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Miller’s last start against the Cubs came April 12, 2024 in Seattle and he allowed one unearned run in 6.1 innings. But, if you look at that boxscore link, several of those Cubs aren’t on the team anymore. Alex Bregman has faced him a lot, but is just 3-for-18 (with two doubles).
So we’ll see.
Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.
Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Mariners site Lookout Landing. If you do go there to interact with Mariners 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.
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The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.
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).
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.
The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.
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You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
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