Chicago Cubs Lineup (8/23/26): Imanaga Has to Play Stopper
Prior to Monday’s win over the White Sox, no one had homered on the first and last pitches their team saw since 1957. Now it’s happened twice in five Cubs games, with Pete Crow-Armstrong accomplishing the feat a few days before Randy Arozarena did it. The Cubs have now been walked off twice in Seattle and three times overall, costing them dearly in the playoff race.
The Brewers have won three straight, the Phillies are surging with eight in a row, and the Padres have won their last two. That puts the Cubs seven games back in the division and only two ahead of the Phils for the top Wild Card spot. It’s not time to hit the panic button or anything, but the Cubs are 3-5 over their last eight games in a stretch that set up nicely for them to do much better.
Shōta Imanaga will be tasked with playing the role of stopper, which he can most certainly do if he’s on his game. He’s the third lefty the Cubs have started in this series, a strategy that should have paid out given how poorly the Mariners have handled southpaws this season. Imanga has pitched very well in limited exposure to these Seattle hitters, and he’ll need to keep it up to avoid being swept.
PCA is in center, Seiya Suzuki is in right, Michael Bushch is at first, and Alex Bregman is at third. Ian Happ patrols left, Nico Hoerner is at short, Pedro Ramírez handles second, and Michael Conforto is the DH. Carson Kelly bats last as the catcher.
Going for the home team is 28-year-old righty Bryce Miller, who missed the first seven weeks or so of the season due to a left oblique strain. After getting off to a fantastic start, going 4-2 with a 1.71 ERA over his first eight outings, he has fallen on hard times. Miller’s last seven starts have produced a 6.57 ERA with a massive drop in his strikeout rate. He’s also given up at least one homer in each of those outings, only one of which has lasted six innings.
Though he still gets a lot of chase and is among the best in the league at avoiding walks, that early group of starts is doing all the heavy lifting. Miller’s strikeout rate went from 33.2% to 15.0% and his walk rate jumped from 2.7% to 7.8%, which are just incredibly alarming shifts. Mariners fans have been calling for him to be moved to the bullpen, or at least for his turn to be skipped, but Bryan Woo had to be pushed back after experiencing shoulder discomfort.
I wonder if Miller is trying to push through some sort of injury, as his fastball has dipped from 96.4 mph to 95.5 mph between the samples in question. He was down to 95 in the first two outings in the group of bad starts, though that could just be normal fluctuation. Because he lacks extension, his stuff also plays down a little bit. And coming from a high slot means he’ll get in trouble if he’s not keeping his cut-ride heater up in the zone.
Sure enough, he tends to fill up the middle third of the zone where hitters can jump all over it. His 85 mph splitter has hung up in the zone, making it much less effective than it was earlier in the season. He’s also had trouble with his slider and sweeper, particularly the latter, carrying off the glove-side edge for balls. It might be a matter of hitters getting the book on him and spitting on pitches they had previously chased.
Before you get too excited, though, consider that Miller has been much better at home this season. We’re talking almost 100 points less in average and OBP allowed, with more than 230 points of slugging and 111 wOBA points. My concern is that he’ll pitch more to those results while Imanaga will struggle, but that’s based more on emotion than reason.
I’m going to miss a good chunk of this game because we’re moving our daughter in for her sophomore year of college, so here’s to hoping the Cubs do something I wish I could have seen. First pitch is mercifully early at 3:10pm CT on Marquee and The Score.
