Chicago Cubs Lineup (8/18/26): Gausman Tries to Bounce Back After Rough Second Outing
Monday’s series opener should have been a lopsided Cubs win, but that wouldn’t have been quite as exciting as the back-and-forth affair that featured yet another signature performance by Pete Crow-Armstrong. While Ben Verlander will tell you it wasn’t quite as cool as Shohei Ohtani hitting two homers in an 11-5 win over the Rockies in Denver, where longballs are notoriously tough to come by, PCA made sure the home crowd didn’t go home disappointed.
Losing a game in which they’d out-hit the White Sox 13-4 until that walk-off blast sealed the deal would have been incredibly deflating. The same is true for potentially losing a quality start by Shōta Imanaga, who struck out 10 and really made just one mistake by hanging a splitter to longtime Cubs nemesis Randal Grichuk. Thankfully, former Cubs coach Will Venable opted to pitch to PCA with first base open in the 10th.
“No,” the second-year skipper responded when asked whether he considered walking the superstar. “That’s not an option there with Seiya behind him. That puts us in a tough spot and not a thought. I mean, you think about all the options. But that’s not one we’re going to make there.”
Call it confirmation bias if you want to, but I’ve always subscribed to the idea that you should do everything in your power to prevent the superstar from beating you. If that means John Paxon, Steve Kerr, or whoever hits the game-winner, so be it. I’d sleep better at night after Seiya Suzuki hit a run-scoring single than to have the MVP go deep. Then again, it was a left-on-left matchup with the South Siders’ top pitching prospect on the mound.
Now we move to Tuesday’s game, which features newcomer Kevin Gausman in his third Cubs start. He ran into a spot of bother in his last outing against the Nationals, not that a strong performance would have mattered with his team being shut out by Cade Cavalli. Gausman started out really well, then was staggered in the 5th inning by five hits before being lifted.
He once again threw the splitter with very high frequency, and it worked quite well. Six of the seven hits he allowed came on the four-seam, with the other coming on a slider. Continuing to throw that splitter a lot is going to be a requirement, particularly if the wind is still blowing briskly out to right this evening.
PCA is in center, Suzuki is the DH, Alex Bregman is at third, and Michael Busch is at first. Nico Hoerner handles short, Pedro Ramírez is at second, Ian Happ is in left, and Miguel Amaya does the catching. Michael Conforto rounds things out in right.
They’re facing towering lefty Bryan Hudson, who was drafted by the Cubs in the third round back in 2015. He spent seven seasons over eight years (no minors in 2020) in the organization without so much as a cup of coffee, then signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in 2022. Hudson was traded to the Brewers in January of 2024 and got significant experience with them before being DFA’d in July of the following year.
The Sox claimed him off the waiver wire last season and he’s been a valuable part of their bullpen this year after a boomerang transaction. Hudson was actually traded to the Mets back in February, but was DFA’d a little over a month later and brought back to the South Side via waivers.
While this is technically his seventh “start” of the season, he’s only serving as an opener and will probably not be counted on for more than four or five outs. That means we won’t spend much time breaking down his fastball/sweeper mix, though it’s interesting to note that he’s generating tremendous value throwing only 92 mph. That’s because he throws from a low slot at 6-foot-8, creating uncomfortable angles with massive extension.
He struggled with health and command during his time with the Cubs, hence the long road to the Show, but sticking with that lower slot and really buying into the east-west nature of his stuff has helped. Hudson was drafted largely based on his ability to spin a curve with big depth, but trying to get on top of both that and the fastball created too much inconsistency.
Hudson’s greatest strength is avoiding barrels, which he does better than just about anyone out there. Pairing him with righty sweeper specialist Erick Fedde as the bulk man makes a ton of sense because of the different looks they’re able to create. Fedde is among the worst pitchers in the league when it comes to fastball value, offspeed value, chase, whiffs, and strikeouts, but the sweeper is pretty okay.
He’s also pitched to reverse splits, with right-handed hitters doing far more damage against him this season. He’s also prone to giving up homers, like the one Busch hit against him back in May. It’s just an educated guess that Fedde will get most of the innings tonight, so I’m not going to bother with much more than this. If that’s who Venable goes with, I fully expect a much easier game than last night.
First pitch is at 8:05pm CT on Marquee and The Score for in-market consumers, with out-of-market viewers getting access via TBS. If Venable has a sense of humor, he’ll intentionally walk PCA to lead off the bottom of the 1st just for the gigs.
