Today’s roster moves: Here
Tuesday notes…
FOR OPENERS: The Cubs won the opening game of their first road series of the season, 10-6, on March 27 at Arizona. They won their second road opener, too, 18-3, at Sacramento. Then they lost two, won two, lost two and won two, the last on June 3 at Washington, making their record in openers 6-4. Since then, they have lost nine in a row: at Detroit, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Houston, Minnesota, New York vs. the Yankees, South Side vs. the White Sox, Milwaukee and St. Louis again. They are 15-5 in opening games at home, for an overall record of 21-18. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
HAPP-ENINGS: Ian Happ, last 14 games since July 26: .289/.353/.556 (13-for-45) with three doubles, three home runs, five walks, seven RBI and seven runs scored. Also, happy birthday to Ian! He turns 31 today.
BACK ON TRACK: Brad Keller, eight games since the All-Star break: 9.1 innings, one hit, no runs, two walks, 11 strikeouts.
THIS DAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Miguel Montero led off the bottom of the 10th with a home run and the Cubs walked off the Brewers 3-2, the sixth win in what would eventually become a nine-game winning streak. It happened 10 years ago today, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015.
Here are today’s particulars.
Cubs lineup:
The Blue Jays lineup was not available at posting time. Please check BCB social media for the Blue Jays lineup.
Javier Assad, RHP vs. José Berríos, RHP
Well, this is a bit of a surprise. Ben Brown had been the scheduled starter for this game, but Javier Assad has been activated from the injured list and gets the call to start. It will be his 2025 MLB season debut, as he suffered an oblique injury in Spring Training and then re-injured it during a rehab outing in April.
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Assad has thrown well in his rehab starts and maxed out at 63 pitches, so he might be limited to 70 or so tonight. I’d assume Brown will be available to back him up.
Assad has two career starts vs. the Blue Jays, both in Toronto, one in 2022 and one in 2023. He did well in both of them and overall has a 0.75 ERA and 0.917 WHIP against them in 12 total innings. Current members of the Jays are a small-sample-size 4-for-18 against him. His pitch chart below is from last year.
José Berríos has been in this league for a long time, and has generally been a pretty consistent starting pitcher. This year is no exception, though he’s been a bit worse in seven starts since July 1: 5.71 ERA, 1.442 WHIP, eight home runs allowed in 34.2 innings.
The current Cub who’s hit him best is, of all people, Justin Turner (5-for-14, .357, a double, two home runs). Nico Hoerner and Kyle Tucker have also homered off Berríos.
Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. You can find out if Marquee is available via a provider in your area here. It’s also on TBS (outside the Cubs and Blue Jays market territories).
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Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Blue Jays site Bluebird Banter. If you do go there to interact with Blue Jays 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 2025 Game Thread procedure will be identical to last year’s.
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.
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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.