Chicago Cubs Lineup (6/3/25): Suzuki in RF, Turner DH, Horton Starting
Today starts a stretch of 26 games in 27 days for the Cubs, with 13 of those games coming against teams listed in MLB.com’s top 10 power rankings. The Nationals are not one of those teams, but they have been playing decent baseball over the last few weeks and aren’t necessarily a pushover. Then again, their 302 runs allowed are the fourth-worst in the NL.
That means all Cade Horton needs to do is keep them to four runs and he’s got an easy win. Okay, it’s not quite that simple, though he hasn’t given up more than three runs in any of his four MLB appearances. The last of those was his best to date as he held the Rockies to two runs on four hits, striking out six with one walk. His two previous starts came against the White Sox and Marlins, so it’s not as though Horton has faced very strong competition.
Then again, he debuted against the Mets and looked good. The more comfortable he gets with his stuff, the better he’s going to be. If a confident Horton is out there on the mound tonight, the Cubs should roll. They’ll have to do it without Kyle Tucker, who is getting another day to rest the jammed right finger he suffered in Sunday’s win. Ian Happ leads off in left, Seiya Suzuki is in right, and Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center. Carson Kelly does the catching, Michael Busch is at first, and Dansby Swanson is at short.
The bottom third of the lineup is Nico Hoerner at second, Justin Turner at DH, and Matt Shaw at third.
They’re up against old friend Trevor Williams, the forgotten man in the Javy Báez-for-PCA trade. Coming off what would have been the best season of his career if not for injuries limiting him to 13 starts, Williams enters this game with a 5.69 ERA. His expected stats say his results should be better, but the dude just has no margin for error with that 88 mph heater.
That’s barely enough to activate the flux capacitor, which would explain why Williams has been unable to turn back the hands of time. His riding sweeper is the only thing keeping him afloat, as it’s thrown from almost a full sidearm angle and gets a lot more ride than other pitches of its ilk. Williams throws a lot of strikes but doesn’t get many swings and misses, so the Cubs should see plenty to hit.
For someone with an inflated ERA, Williams has done a really good job against right-handed hitters. They come into this one with a .204/.253/.269 slash, putting them at least 140 points behind their lefty counterparts in all areas. That performance is even worse when Williams is pitching at home, so maybe he’s figured something out when it comes to facing righty batters.
Or maybe those numbers are fluky and bound to even out over the next few months. First pitch is at 5:45pm CT on Marquee and 670 The Score.
First of three in D.C.
Watch tonight’s game live on the Marquee Sports Network App. pic.twitter.com/cZfXyPaZ6v
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 3, 2025
