Chicago Cubs Lineup (8/6/24): Happ Leads Off, Imanaga Starting

The Cubs did the most obvious thing ever following their convincing series win over the Cardinals by losing in shutout fashion to the Twins. Oh, and it was against a rookie who’d been roughed up pretty badly in two of his four outings. David Festa has really good stuff, sure, but the Cubs seem to find ways to make otherwise ordinary pitchers look like aces.

That could well be the case tonight against Pablo López, who’s having a down season on the ERA front even though nearly every other metric is at or below his career marks. His Baseball Savant page is filled with red for the most part, which is a good thing, it’s just that a few areas jump out as being problematic. López is getting whiffs and chases at a high rate, but hitters are doing tons of damage when they do catch barrels.

And that’s happening with greater frequency than usual, perhaps because he’s working in the strike zone more than in the past. Even though we’re only talking about a few percentage points, not finding the corner with his sweeper has been a problem. The changeup has likewise been victimized when it hangs up in the zone. López has gotten good results from his mid-90s fastball, particularly when he keeps it up in the zone.

He will get his share of strikeouts and won’t walk many, so the Cubs need to take advantage of what figures to be a few meatballs in this one.

Nothing much interesting about tonight’s lineup, which yet again features Ian Happ at the top and Michael Busch at first. Seiya Suzuki is in right and Cody Bellinger remains at DH because his broken finger still isn’t quite ready for the field. Isaac Paredes is at third, Nico Hoerner is at second, and Mallory Swanson’s husband plays shortstop. Pete Crow-Armstrong continues his growth in center and Miguel Amaya does the catching.

On the bump for the Cubs is lefty Mike Imanaga II, who may be hitting a wall here in the dog days of summer. While he’s been much better since that brutal outing against the Brewers back in June, he’s allowed three or more earned runs in four of his last six starts. He’s allowed six homers in that time as well, so the margin for error is pretty slim when it comes to limiting baserunners.

First pitch is at 7:10pm CT on Marquee and 670 The Score.

Game ✌️ vs. Minnesota.

Tune in: https://t.co/Gs2hZXyTjH pic.twitter.com/jeLGtvH07M

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 6, 2024