Chicago Cubs Lineup (6/5/25): Tucker Returns, McGuire Catching, Pomeranz Opening
The Cubs failed to score last night, so even a great start from Matt Boyd wasn’t enough to get them a win. That means the series is tied heading into a game that feels more important than it may be in reality. With three games in Detroit and another three in Philly to follow, starting the road trip with a series loss in Washington would not be ideal.
Drew Pomeranz will again get the nod as the opener in this one after starting ahead of Ben Brown last Saturday. The lefty faced only three batters over his lone inning of work, but he hasn’t pitched since then and might be tasked with going deeper tonight. Colin Rea will presumably serve as the bulk man coming off of two very rough outings against the Reds, which might be a good option given how he faded late in those starts.
Rea also gave up early runs in both, but, much like Brown, it might help him to get hot in the bullpen before coming out. My initial preference was to have Brown go on what would be regular rest, but being early in a stretch of 26 games in 27 days means Craig Counsell needs to give whatever breaks he can. As good as he was earlier in the season, Rea may be pitching for his job with Shōta Imanaga working back from the IL.
Not that the pitching even matters when you can’t score runs. Ian Happ will try to get things started in left, Kyle Tucker returns to the starting lineup in right, Seiya Suzuki is the DH, and Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center. Dansby Swanson is at short, Michael Busch plays first, Nico Hoerner is at second, and Matt Shaw handles third. Reese McGuire bats last as the catcher.
They’re facing righty Jake Irvin, who comes into the game with a 5-1 record and a 3.93 ERA. That latter mark is a bit lower than expected, as Irvin gives up a lot of hard contact with very low strikeout numbers. He has surrendered seven or more hits in five of his 12 starts so far, and his 16.5% whiff rate is in the 2nd percentile among qualified MLB pitchers.
Irvin pitches backwards, favoring a slurvy breaking ball that makes up nearly 40% of his repertoire. He throws it to batters on either side of the plate, with lefties getting a few more of them, relatively speaking. His 92 mph fastball is pedestrian, but he’s got a good changeup that he throws mainly to left-handed hitters. Righties will see more sinkers, but they don’t really need to worry too much about them.
The curve and change are likely what will determine Irvin’s effectiveness in this one, and the Cubs’ lefty batters may need to carry the offensive load tonight. Irvin has limited righties to a .145/.230/.218 slash when he’s pitching at home this season, much better results than he’s gotten on the road. Again, though, that could be a matter of getting disproportionately lucky.
Maybe the Cubs can even those numbers out a little bit as they go for the series win at 5:45pm CT on Marquee and 670 The Score.
