Chicago Cubs vs. Arizona Diamondbacks preview, Saturday 5/14, 7:10 CT

The Cubs look to even up their series with the D-Backs.

Saturday notes…

• NEED A WIN BECAUSE: The Cubs are attempting to avoid losing a series to Arizona for the first time since August 1-3, 2017 (1-2) at Wrigley Field and first time in Phoenix since May 22-24, 2015 (1-2).
• THE PROFESSOR: Tonight, Kyle Hendricks will make his eighth career start vs. Arizona and is 4-2 with a 3.12 ERA (15 earned runs in 43⅓ innings) lifetime against the D-Backs. More on Kyle below.
• WILLSON!: Willson Contreras among the league leaders: His .407 on-base percentage this season is sixth-best in the NL. He’s hitting .346 (18-for-52) on the road with a 1.058 OPS in 14 games. The .346 BA on the road is the fifth-best in the NL and eighth-best in the majors, and he leads all qualifying catchers with an .912 OPS.
• LEADING THE RELIEVERS: Cubs relievers are tied for the most strikeouts among relief pitchers this year with the Reds (153), and Keegan Thompson’s 1.17 ERA in relief leads all relievers with 20 or more relief innings.
• NOTE FOR SUNDAY:

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Diamondbacks lineup:

Kyle Hendricks, RHP vs. Zac Gallen, RHP

Kyle Hendricks was magnificent his last time out, coming one out short of the Cubs’ first complete game of the season.

He’s way ahead of where he was after seven starts last year (6.38 ERA, 11 home runs allowed). After having some trouble with walks early on, he has walked only six over his last 30 innings.

His last start against the D-Backs was July 16, 2021 at Chase Field, and he allowed one run on six hits that night. We’ll take another one of those, please.

The D-Backs have been hoping for ace-type results from Zac Gallen since they traded for him in 2019 and they might finally be getting those results. He has an 0.95 ERA and 0.706 WHIP in five starts, with no home runs allowed and just four walks in 28⅓ innings.

He faced the Cubs twice last year and one start was good and the other, not so much. Both of those starts were before the Cubs selloff so no current Cub has more than five career AB against him.

This should be a good pitchers’ duel.

Statcast

Statcast

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. Here’s a list of providers currently carrying Marquee.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Diamondbacks site AZ Snakepit. If you do go there to interact with D-Backs 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 2022 Game Thread procedure will be like last years, similar to what we’ve used for Spring Training.

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.

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.