THE .500 CLUB:<\/strong> By beating the Cubs last night, the Reds raised their record to 77-76, so tonight\u2019s game will be the Cubs\u2019 first in 26, nearly one-sixth of a season, against an opponent with a winning record. The last was a 4-1 loss to the Brewers at home on Aug. 21. In the 25 games since then against sub-.500 teams, the Cubs went 15-10, a .600 winning percentage. (Courtesy BCB\u2019s JohnW53)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n MAGIC NUMBER:<\/strong> The Cubs\u2019 magic number to clinch the top wild-card spot over the Padres remains at 5 after the Cubs\u2019 loss Thursday. Thus if the Cubs go 5-4 in their nine remaining games, they\u2019ll host the wild-card series regardless of what the Padres do. If for any reason a tiebreaker is needed, it will work this way. The Cubs and Padres split their season series, so the tiebreaker between them is the record within the team\u2019s division. The Padres are 29-20 vs. NL West teams with three games remaining (three vs. D-backs at home). The Cubs are 27-19 vs. NL Central teams with six games remaining (three vs. Reds on the road, three vs. Cardinals at home). If the teams are still tied after that, the next tiebreaker is the team\u2019s record against other teams in their own league.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n THE NICO FILES:<\/strong> Nico Hoerner\u2019s 12-game hitting streak ended Thursday but in 23 games since Aug. 23 he is batting .363\/.416\/.549 (33-for-91) with nine doubles, a triple, two home runs, five stolen bases, eight walks and 20 runs scored.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY?: <\/strong>Since Sept. 9 the Cubs are 7-2 and have allowed just 21 runs in the nine games (2.33 per game), the fewest runs allowed by any NL team over that span.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Cubs lineup:<\/p>\n Reds lineup:<\/p>\n Sh\u014dta Imanaga, LHP vs. Nick Lodolo, LHP Sh\u014dta Imanaga has given up three runs in each of his last four starts, and thrown at least six innings in three of those four. That\u2019s an average of a \u201cquality start\u201d over that time frame, though the 4.50 ERA isn\u2019t great, and seven of the 12 runs allowed have come via home runs \u2014 all but one of those seven a solo shot.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In the 24 innings covered above, Sh\u014dta has issued two walks and struck out 20, including a season-high nine in his last outing against the Rays.<\/p>\n So he hasn\u2019t pitched badly, really\u2026 but that\u2019s not really good, either. The last time he faced the Reds, Aug. 5 at Wrigley Field<\/a>, he allowed three hits and one run. That\u2019d work for this one.<\/p>\n Nick Lodolo has made two starts against the Cubs this year. He threw five shutout innings against them May 31 at Wrigley Field<\/a>, but they scored three in five innings off him at GABP May 25<\/a>, including a home run by Reese McGuire (that was McGuire\u2019s two-homer debut game for the Cubs).<\/p>\n The A\u2019s hit Lodolo pretty hard in his last start<\/a> including three home runs, so perhaps the Cubs offense can continue that.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s game is on Marquee Sports Network.\u00a0You can find out if Marquee is available via a provider in your area here<\/a>. It\u2019s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Reds market territories).<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.<\/a><\/p>\n MLB.com Gameday<\/a><\/p>\n Baseball-reference.com game preview<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1f85e0da8eb7867f7fb144c6aa1f1a05.jpeg\"\/)
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