Chicago Cubs vs. Pittsburgh Pirates preview, Sunday 9/25, 12:35 CT

Sep 25, 2022 - 4:00 PM

There’s a chance of rain this afternoon in Pittsburgh. The teams don’t have any mutual off days before the season ends (Cubs are off Monday, Pirates are off Thursday). If this game can’t be played, it would likely be cancelled and not made up.

Here’s local radar for Pittsburgh:

Sunday notes...

• HAPP-ENINGS: Ian Happ has 59 extra-base hits this season. He’s the third Cubs switch-hitter to have that many XBH and the first since Augie Galan collected 64 in 1935, a franchise mark for a switch-hitter. Walt Wilmot had 62 extra-base hits way back in 1894.
• MORE ON THE PITTSBURGH-AREA NATIVE: Happ is batting .344/.444/.607 (21-for-61) against the Pirates this year with seven doubles and three home runs, and lifetime against his hometown team he’s batting .314/.403/.557 (83-for-264) with 22 doubles and 14 home runs in 81 games.
• WORDS OF WISDOM: With one more home run, Patrick Wisdom would become the fourth Cubs (predominantly) third baseman to have multiple 25-homer campaigns. The other three: Ron Santo (eight times), Aramis Ramírez (seven) and Kris Bryant (four).
• PLAYING THEM CLOSE: The Cubs have played 21 games in September. Just six of them have been decided by more than three runs, and the Cubs are 1-5 in those games. In games decided by three runs or fewer this month, the Cubs are 9-6.

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Franmil Reyes last played right field July 29 for Cleveland. He’s played 10 games in RF this year (nine starts).

Pirates lineup:

Adrian Sampson, RHP vs. Luis Ortiz, RHP

Adrian Sampson had one of his better starts of the year against the Pirates July 25 at Wrigley Field: Seven innings, six hits, two runs.

He’s made 16 starts this year and thrown at least six innings in five of them, posting a quality start in all five, and two other times he’d have had a QS if he could have recorded one more out in the sixth inning.

Sampson is no superstar, but he gives you a good outing almost every time out.

Luis Ortiz kind of came out of nowhere. He’s not on anyone’s Top 100 prospects list and on the most recent Pirates Top 30 from MLB Pipeline, he’s... 30th.

In 26 appearances (25 starts) split between Double-A and Triple-A this year, Ortiz posted a 4.56 ERA, though he did strike out a lot of guys (138 in 125⅓ innings).

He’s been very good in his first two MLB starts, which include holding the mighty Yankees to two runs (one earned) in five innings in his most recent outing September 20.

He’s obviously never faced the Cubs or anyone on their active roster, and as you can see by the graphic below, he throws hard. Should be interesting.

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

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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.