Chicago Cubs Lineup (9/27/25): Busch Leads Off, Tucker DH, Taillon Starting
The Cubs thumped the Cardinals on Friday, lowering their magic number for the top Wild Card spot to one in the process. While the Padres didn’t cooperate in their win over the Diamondbacks, the Cubs can do it themselves with another victory this afternoon. They might have to since that loss eliminated the D-backs from contention. Saturday is pivotal for the final WC spot as well, as the Reds have moved back into a tie with the Mets.
Jameson Taillon will make his 23rd and final start of the season in this one, setting him up to start an as-needed Game 3 next week on regular rest. The team is still saying Cade Horton is on track to pitch as well, but I remain suspicious of that whole situation because I’ve become inured to positive reports about players’ health. If Horton isn’t able to go, it would likely be Matthew Boyd on Tuesday and Shota Imanaga on Wednesday.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’d rather have Colin Rea take Game 2 at this point. After correcting an issue with his mechanics that had him getting too rotational in his delivery, thus flying open and missing his spots, his last two starts have been his best of the season. Even better, he has allowed just one homer in his last 11 starts and none over his last five. Imanaga has allowed 17 homers over his last 11 starts and 20 over his last 12.
We can save that debate for later, since today’s game is all that matters at the moment. In three starts since coming off his second IL stint, Taillon has given up just three runs on 13 hits. He’s anything but a strikeout artist at this point, but he’s done a better job of keeping the ball in the yard lately after giving up 23 dingers over his first 19 starts. Pitching against a Cardinals team that doesn’t appear to have much fight left could add to his momentum.
First baseman Michael Busch has come on strong over the last two weeks and he’ll look to do more damage as the leadoff hitter, then it’s Nico Hoerner at second and Ian Happ in left. Kyle Tucker is the DH, Seiya Suzuki is in right, Carson Kelly does the catching, and Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center. Dansby Swanson is at short and Matt Shaw plays third.
They’re facing 25-year-old righty Michael McGreevy for the third time after getting decidedly mixed results against him earlier in the year. He bounced between St. Louis and Triple-A Memphis in the first half, but has stuck around since and will be making his 16th start of the season this afternoon. The 18th overall pick out of UC Santa Barbara back in 2021, McGreevy has been steadily unspectacular in the minors.
He won’t strike out many batters, as evidenced by a 14.5% K rate that sits in the third percentile, but he limits walks and homers to make opposing lineups work a little. His 93 mph four-seam has more sink and run than most and his 92 mph sinker gets a lot of depth. He’s also got a cutter at 88 mph that gets outs via contact. McGreevy’s sweeper is pretty decent as well, coming in at 83-84 mph.
He’ll go mainly sinker/sweeper to right-handed hitters and four-seam/cutter to lefties, with the curve and change used 10-12% apiece. Those latter two have a very heavy bias to left-handed hitters as well, and that could be part of the problem because they’re his worst pitches by far. I’m not sure I’d stick with that strategy with lefties slashing .307/.361/.503 against me, but I sure hope McGreevy keeps it up against the Cubs today.
Then again, maybe he’ll shut them down like he did in St. Louis back on August 8, a start in which he kept the Cubs off the board over six innings. Or maybe it’ll be more like his start at Wrigley on June 24 in which he gave up five runs over 4.2 frames. I have a feeling it’ll be more of the latter after warming up against the shell of Miles Mikolas yesterday. Mikolas is among the eight worst pitchers in MLB (min. 90 IP) in strikeout rate (14.9%) and K/9 (5.76), but McGreevy is even lower in both (14.5%, 5.44).
This matchup offers a tremendous opportunity for Tucker to hone his timing and PCA to catch a wave, not to mention all the other Cubs hitters who’ve been looking better of late. First pitch is at 1:20pm CT on Marquee and 670 The Score.
Let’s have a Saturday.
Watch the game live on the Marquee Sports Network App. pic.twitter.com/FVn77NqRoo
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 27, 2025
