Chicago Cubs Lineup (8/4/26): Assad Opposing Skubal in First Dodgers, Wrigley Start

After coming out as big winners at the trade deadline, the Cubs came up with a big win over the Dodgers in Monday’s series opener. They went heavy on volume, acquiring two front-line starters and a high-leverage reliever, along with a swing option who’ll start his Cubs tenure in Iowa. The Dodgers, on the other hand, made the biggest splash for the biggest name to further cement their status as an evil mega-corporation.

Matthew Boyd was able to weather an early storm last night, and now it’s up to Javier Assad to stem the tide in what could be his final start of the season. He figures to be displaced to the bullpen by Kevin Gausman and Clay Holmes, though it’s not for a lack of production. Assad continues to outperform his peripherals to the tune of a 6-1 record with a 3.75 ERA and 48 strikeouts to 18 walks.

There are still serious concerns about his anemic strikeout rate and way too much hard contact, but he somehow manages to work around it nearly every outing. Even if he’s able to keep the magic act going in this one, the bats are going to need to stay loud behind him.

Pete Crow-Armstrong leads off in center, with Seiya Suzuki in right, Alex Bregman at DH, and Michael Busch at first. Nico Hoerner is at second, Tyrone Taylor makes his Cubs debut in left as he platoons with Ian Happ against lefties, and Dansby Swanson is at short. Pedro Ramírez handles the hot corner and Miguel Amaya is the catcher.

Making both his Dodgers and Wrigley Field debuts is lefty Tarik Skubal, the undisputed No. 1 trade acquisition of the season. Skubal was hampered early in the season by elbow issues that necessitated the removal of loose bodies, which sounds like something that happened at Mark Grace‘s place just about every morning in the 90s, but he’s bounced back nicely following a cutting-edge procedure. You know a guy’s good when posting a 2.79 ERA is seen as a down year.

Now the back-to-back AL Cy Young winner joins the back-to-back World Series champs, fueling even more animosity toward the Dodgers and baseball’s economic system. But it’s not like they went out and paid half a billion dollars to get him. This is an organization that spends more than any other while also drafting, acquiring, and developing young talent as well as a scrappy small-market outfit.

That’s how the best lefty on the planet described the situation on Monday as he shot down any notion that his new employer is some sort of evil empire.

“Every team could trade for me,” Skubal told reporters. “Every team could make that acquisition. And I don’t really sympathize with people that blame the Dodgers for anything they’ve done.

“They’ve developed a really good organization. They draft well, they acquire talent really well, they retain talent. It’s a winning organization. Now the complaints seem to be because they’ve won the last two World Series. I don’t think it was like that three years ago. So I don’t really sympathize with people that are complaining because the Dodgers do all the right things.”

I haven’t seen a heel turn of this caliber since Hulk Hogan joined nWo and became Hollywood Hogan, complete with a black outfit and a Just for Men dye job on his beard. The biggest difference is that Skubal is still near the top of his game, making his addition to this Dodgers roster more than just a cheap stunt.

Skubal has always been a bully on the mound, attacking hitters in the zone and daring them to beat him. Only two of 133 qualified pitchers since the start of the 2023 season boast lower walk rates than his 4.4%, and no one comes close to his 7.16 K/BB ratio. Skubal’s fastball sits 97 mph and can touch 100, same for his sinker, and his 90 mph slider is a bullet that thrives in the heart of the zone. His heavy changeup at 87 mph makes batters look silly as well.

He throws from a relatively high arm angle and has a little funk with his glove hand pulling away, giving him a little deception he lacks from getting mediocre extension. It’s interesting to see how what had previously been mild traditional splits have skewed wildly reverse this season, with lefties posting a .270/.293/.427 slash against the .189/.232/.322 line posted by right-handed hitters.

Most of that comes from aberrant results from a sample of 40 lefty batters on the road earlier in the season, so I suspect we’ll see things even out. This Cubs roster has only 50 total at-bats against Skubal, with Bregman accounting for 15 of those. The third baseman is 7-for-15 with a homer, triple, and double, so maybe he’ll be able to get rolling again tonight.

Though I’ve got a really bad feeling about this matchup, there’s a tugging sense of hope that the Cubs will step up and get it done. Still, my pessimism runs deep. First pitch is at 7:05pm CT on Marquee and The Score.