Chicago Cubs vs. Philadelphia Phillies preview, Thursday 4/23, 1:20 CT

Cubs lineup:

Phillies lineup:

Edward Cabrera, RHP vs. Cristopher Sánchez, LHP

Edward Cabrera has been as advertised so far this year. His power changeup results in a lot of strikeouts — 17 in 22.2 innings. It also has led to a fair number of walks, 11, which is too many. Cut down on the walks and he can dominate.

One really good thing: He hasn’t allowed a home run yet this year.

Last year he made two starts against the Phillies and allowed four runs in 10.2 innings, with four walks and eight strikeouts. Kyle Schwarber has homered twice off him, so… that would be something to try to prevent.

Cristopher Sánchez threw six innings against the Cubs April 13 in Philadelphia and allowed two runs. Dansby Swanson’s homer accounted for both of those runs.

Sánchez threw six innings and allowed one unearned run to the Braves last Saturday in Philadelphia. He was one of the top pitchers in MLB last year (8.0 bWAR, second in NL Cy Young voting) and his 2026 season has begun the same way. He will be tough to hit this afternoon.

Here is the weather forecast for the area around Wrigley Field. The wind should be blowing out this afternoon.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Phillies market territories).

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page 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 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.

You’ll find the game preview, like this one, 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.

The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.

You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

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