Chicago Cubs vs. Philadelphia Phillies preview, Wednesday 9/28, 6:40 CT

Wednesday notes...

• ATTENDANCE WATCH: The Cubs have sold 2,478,405 tickets for 76 dates, an average of 32,611 per date. They must average 24,319 for the final five dates to get to 2.6 million for the year, a mark it now does appear they’ll reach. They haven’t announced fewer than 2.6 million tickets sold since 1997.
• HE’S HOT: Yan Gomes, last 13 games since September 7: .296/.319/.477 (13-for-44) with two doubles, two home runs and nine RBI, including the game-winner Tuesday night.
• GETTING CLOSER: The Cubs are now 25-26 in their 51 one-run games this year. But that record has improved tremendously in recent months — since July 17 they are 15-8 in one-run games.
• POWER AND SPEED: Christopher Morel’s 15th home run of the season Tuesday made him the fifth rookie in Cubs history to register a 15-plus home run and 10-plus stolen base season during their first major league season. The last such season: Kris Bryant (26 HR and 13 SB in 2015).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Phillies lineup:

Hayden Wesneski, RHP vs. Aaron Nola, RHP

Major League Baseball

USA TODAY NETWORK

You all know what Hayden Wesneski did in his last start, and how well he’s pitched overall since being called up from Triple-A Iowa.

Eventually the league will catch up to him and there will likely be bumps in the road, but I’d sure like to see him do well against a playoff-bound team.

He’s obviously never faced the Phillies or anyone on their active roster.

Aaron Nola has had a good year, but every now and again he has a clunker. He’s allowed at least four runs in 10 of his 30 starts this year, which means he’s not unhittable.

He has not faced the Cubs this year and among current Cubs, Yan Gomes has hit him well in the past — 6-for-16, two home runs. Franmil Reyes has also homered off him.

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 Phillies site The Good Phight. If you do go there to interact with Phillies 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 year’s, 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.