Chicago Cubs Lineup (9/7/26): Boyd Battles Brewers, Bats Brave Bob’s Breaking Balls

In the spirit of the holiday, I’m not going to labor much on today’s preview that only two or three people will read. I will, however, share a statistical note from MLB.com’s Mike Petriello that illustrates just how much the game has changed over the last several decades. I mean, we all understand that inherently, but this data completely baked my noodle.

So far this season, which still has 18 games left, Pete Crow-Armstrong has faced 286 pitchers for 28 teams in 22 different ballparks. Over his entire 13-year career, Joe DiMaggio faced 321 pitchers for seven teams in nine ballparks. Even before I was made aware of this, I was thinking about how well PCA’s ability to adjust would have served him in an era that didn’t see teams deploying 4-5 pitchers every game.

That’s not about trying to directly compare him to other players who came before him, and it’s not to say those players would not have been as good today. We’re all products of our environments, so it’s impossible to say whether and how we would have performed under an entirely different set of constraints. Then there’s the fact that putting PCA in the 1940s would also mean taking away all the advanced training methods he’s been able to use since he was a young kid.

Younger kid, that is. At just 24 years and 165 days, he became the youngest Cub ever to reach 40 home runs in a season. Ernie Banks was 49 days older when he got there in 1955. Mr. Cub finished with 44 that year, his first of five campaigns with 40+ dingers. PCA has a chance to beat that mark, and he can also best Billy Williams (42 in 1970) for most ever by a left-handed Cubs batter.

There’s also a legit chance that he ends up as the NL home run champ, though Kyle Schwarber is two ahead and won’t go down easy. Speaking of which, Schwarber came close to catching Williams when he hit 38 in 2019. He has an outside chance at catching Babe Ruth for most homers in the first five seasons with a team. The Bambino hit 235 with the Yankees, and Schwarber is at 228 for the Phillies.

Anyway, back to the game. Matthew Boyd is on the mound to face the Brewers for the second time in six days. He pitched acceptably well in that one, allowing three earned runs on seven hits through 5.1 innings, but he really needs to miss more bats. With three or fewer strikeouts in five of his last six starts, he’s not looking much like a playoff starter.

PCA is in center, Seiya Suzuki is the DH, Alex Bregman is at third, and Tyrone Taylor is in left, Nico Hoerner plays short, Matt Shaw is in right, Carson Kelly is the catcher, and BJ Murray finally gives Michael Busch a break at first. Pedro Ramírez bats last at second.

On the mound for the visitors is lefty Robert Gasser, a 27-year-old who has been limited by injuries since his debut in 2024. Gasser works from a fairly low slot and likes to throw east-west, with his 80 mph sweeper leading the way at about 26% of his repertoire. A 93 mph fastball (24%), 92-93 mph sinker (23%), and 88 mph cutter (19%) make for a balanced mix, while an 88 mph changeup (9%) offers a wrinkle against right-handed hitters. The cutter and sinker have been pretty good, but nothing else has really worked to this point.

Because he tends to leave everything up in the zone, Gasser is prone to surrendering a lot of contact in the air. He’s also a strike-thrower, which works against him because he doesn’t get many whiffs. The sweeper doesn’t bear in on righties enough to be as effective as it should be, and the fastball doesn’t have enough zip for him to get away with leaving it below the very top of the zone.

That didn’t hurt him much last week, the same game Boyd started, though he only lasted 4.1 innings in an eventual Brewers win. He’s had two very strong outings in a row now, so I expect a little regression to the mean this afternoon.

First pitch is at 1:10pm CT on Marquee and The Score.