Chicago Cubs vs. San Francisco Giants preview, Tuesday 8/26, 8:45 CT

Tuesday notes…

ROAD WARRIORS: The Cubs have won the first three games of their current nine-game road trip. They have won the first four in only two of their 161 previous trips of at least nine games since 2000. In 2003, they won four games at Milwaukee, then lost at St. Louis. In 2014, they won three at Boston, then won at Washington. They lost the next two, then dropped four in a row at Cincinnati. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

RUN DIFFERENTIAL UPDATE: By outscoring the Angels over the weekend, 19-6, the Cubs raised their run differential to +126. That is just two runs below their season high of 128, following a 6-0 win at home over the Red Sox on July 19. They have played 33 games since then. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

THE SHAW RUN CONTINUES: Matt Shaw, 34 games since the All-Star break: .298/.343/.691 (28-for-94) with six doubles, two triples, nine home runs, 18 RBI and 18 runs scored.

THIS DAY IN CUBS HISTORY: The Cubs have a 7-4 lead entering the seventh, blow it, then win 10-9 in the bottom of the 10th on a walkoff HBP to Joe Pepitone. Four future Cubs (Bobby Bonds, Chris Speier, Ken Henderson and Dave Kingman) play in this game for the Giants. It happened 53 years ago today, Saturday, Aug. 26, 1972.

Cubs lineup:

Giants lineup:

Matthew Boyd, LHP vs. Justin Verlander, RHP

You will be forgiven tonight if you feel transported back to 2015 in Detroit.

That’s because 2015 was the first of three years Matthew Boyd and Justin Verlander were Tigers teammates, before Verlander was traded to Houston in 2017.

The Tigers weren’t very good in those years — they lost 98 games in 2017, which is why Verlander was deemed tradable, though the return to Detroit wasn’t great (Daz Cameron, Jake Rogers and a minor leaguer named Franklin Pérez).

Meanwhile, Boyd wasn’t all that good back then, either. All told, he posted a 4.92 ERA in 162 games (158 starts) for the Tigers, even leaving and returning after a year in Seattle.

In 2025, Boyd has turned in the best year of his career, made the NL All-Star team and might get some downballot MVP votes. Verlander appears to have reached the end of the line, with a 4.64 ERA in 22 starts at age 42. Kind of reminds me of Steve Carlton trying to hang on with the White Sox, Indians, Twins and yes, the Giants, into his 40s. Carlton is a Hall of Famer and Verlander will be, too, likely on the first ballot.

The Cubs scored three runs in five innings off Verlander May 6 at Wrigley Field. He’s had some good starts this year but also some real bad ones, including giving up seven runs in 4.1 innings to the Padres in his last start.

Boyd, meanwhile, threw six innings and allowed two runs to the Giants May 5 at Wrigley Field. Another one of those tonight would be just fine.

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 Giants site McCovey Chronicles. If you do go there to interact with Giants 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.