Chicago Cubs Lineup (6/4/26): Major Shakeup, Swanson Still SS, Imanaga Pitching
It’s been four full weeks since the Cubs last won at Wrigley, which coincides exactly with their last series win. There was a time when today’s starter would be a top choice to play the role of stopper, but Shota Imanaga has been very, very bad over his last three starts. I mean, if you consider 20 earned runs on 21 hits (eight homers) to be bad.
With the way the Cubs have been playing, I’ve got better things to do than waste much time breaking this game down. Until something changes, I think I’ll save us all a little time and effort by keeping these short.
Here’s the lineup:
After facing a couple of guys against whom they should have done more, the Cubs get righty J.T. Ginn for the series finale. The 27-year-old opened the season as a reliever, but moved into the rotation after three appearances when injuries took other starters out. He’s been very strong over 10 starts, with just one bad game a little over a month ago.
Outside of allowing five earned runs to the Guardians in that one, he’s held every opponent to three or fewer runs. It’s been just one or two runs in eight starts, though he does appear to be experiencing a little good BABIP luck. He doesn’t strike out many batters and his walk rate is really high, but he stays away from hard contact and gets a lot of grounders.
Sounds like exactly the sort of pitcher who gives the Cubs fits after they get runners on base and then forget how to drive them in. Ginn only sits around 94 on his sinker and four-seam, but the former is a bowling ball that he uses to get those grounders. The fastball also has good drop, it’s just thrown higher in the zone. His slider isn’t much to speak of, but the 88-89 mph changeup falls off the table with good arm-side run.
Right-handed hitters will see a steady diet of sinkers in on the hands, but lefties get a very balanced attack that includes more sliders and cutters. Ginn pitches to traditional splits and is a little more susceptible to those lefty bats, which would be encouraging if not for his start home/road numbers. This guy has been unreal on the road, holding opponents to a .145/.242/.282 slash over almost 35 innings.
Bregman and Kelly are the only Cubs who’ve faced Ginn, and they’ve only got two at-bats apiece, so there’s not much to go on there. I don’t like this matchup at all, which is probably why it’ll work out for the Cubs. First pitch is at 7:05pm CT on Marquee and The Score.
