Cubs @ Reds: Darvish vs. Gray (Game 40
CHC (25-14): RHP Yu Darvish (2-3, 5.40 ERA)
CIN (18-24): RHP Sonny Gray (0-4, 4.15 ERA)
First pitch 5:40pmCDT
We're roughly a quarter of the way through this season. The Cubs are in first, Bryant is back on track, Baez and Contreras still look like All-Stars, and Hendricks has found his groove. Darvish, however, still has no command of his pitches. The movement and velocity on his pitches remains great, but he misses the zone frequently and by wide margins. Batters' swing rates against him are down, 41.2% this year vs. 44.9% in his career. We haven't really seen him get batters to chase in his time as a Cub. He's gotten 26.6% and 26% chase rates this year and last vs. rates right around 30% in his years in Texas. Last time out, he was limited to four innings despite allowing only one run due to the combination of 6 walks and 7 strikeouts. There's almost no history between him and Reds' hitters, but Cincinnati's not a good place to struggle with walks.
Sonny Gray's been solid in 2019, improving on his strikeouts, groundouts, and homerun rate compared to 2018 with Yankees. His command has slipped a bit in the last two starts. On May 8, he went 4.1 against the Athletics allowing 5 walks and getting 3 strikeouts. Current Cubs are 2-14 against him with 1 strikeout and no walks.
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