Chicago Cubs vs. Pittsburgh Pirates preview, Wednesday 4/30, 5:40 CT

The Cubs go for the series win.

Today’s roster move: Here

Wednesday notes…

• BLANKING THEM: Four of the Cubs’ 18 wins have been shutouts — 22.2 percent. They have not had a percentage that high at the end of a season since 2020, when it was 23.5 percent: eight of 34 wins. But that season was limited to 60 games. Their last full season with a higher percentage was 1969: 23.9 (23 of 92). The Cubs have had percentages higher than that in 11 other seasons — all between 1902 and 1919. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• CUBS OFFENSIVE RANKINGS: Runs, 181 (1st). Runs per game, 6.03 (1st). Doubles, 60 (3rd, one behind Red Sox and Cardinals). Stolen bases, 44 (1st). Walks, 123 (2nd, Mariners). OPS, .799 (2nd, Yankees).
• PCA! PCA!: Pete Crow-Armstrong, last 13 games since April 13: .400/.412/.920 (20-for-50) with six doubles, a triple, six home runs, six stolen bases, 12 runs scored and 16 RBI.
• SEIYA UPDATE: Seiya Suzuki, last 14 games since April 7: .364/.397/.673 (20-for-55) with four doubles, two triples, three home runs, nine runs scored and 14 RBI.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Pirates lineup:

Matthew Boyd, LHP vs. Carmen Mlodzinski, RHP

Matthew Boyd had the worst start of his season to date his last time out, April 23 vs. the Dodgers, and even at that he got a “quality start” out of it, three earned runs (six total runs) in six innings.

He last faced the Pirates Aug. 30, 2024 in Cleveland, allowing one run in six innings, with no walks and eight strikeouts.

I’d like to order another one of those, please.

Carmen Mlodzinski was a hard-throwing setup man for the Pirates the last two years. This year they’ve moved him into the rotation and the results have not been good so far. Only one of the five starts has been good, and the rest mediocre-to-bad. Last year in three relief outings vs. the Cubs he posted a 3.18 ERA in 5⅔ total innings, so that really doesn’t tell us too much.

It should be noted that Mlodzinski is listed with four starts last year and one in 2023, but all of those were as an opener.

Baseball Savant

Baseball Savant

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

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

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Pirates site Bucs Dugout. If you do go there to interact with Pirates 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.

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.