Chicago Cubs Lineup (6/13/25): Tucker DH, McGuire Catching, Horton Facing Skenes

It’s Friday the 13th, which means superstitions and flash tattoo sales. I’m far more into the latter, though I admit to feeling like this one is a loss since the Cubs already beat Paul Skenes earlier in the season. We’ll get to that soon enough, but let’s look at what the Cubs will be doing.

Cade Horton is on for the seventh time and is coming off a start in which he allowed a season-high four earned runs. The young righty tied his high with six strikeouts and he continues to limit walks, but he’s allowed 33 hits in 30.2 innings so far. With just 25 strikeouts in that time, he’s having a little trouble putting batters away. This could be a good day to work on that, as the Pirates’ 23.6% strikeout rate is the fifth-highest in MLB.

This could also be a test of Horton’s mettle in that he may not get much, or any, early run support. Like Ben Brown facing Tarik Skubal in Detroit, this is a matchup in which the Cubs’ starter may need to go blow-for-blow with one of the best in the game. As long as Horton can keep it competitive, the offense can throw punches late.

Ian Happ leads off in left, followed by Kyle Tucker at DH and Seiya Suzuki in right. Pete Crow-Armstrong is the cleanup hitter in center, Dansby Swanson is at short, and Michael Busch is at first. Nico Hoerner handles second, Matt Shaw plays third, and Reese McGuire is behind the dish.

Since allowing three earned runs and taking the loss in their last meeting, Skenes has given up six earned over his last seven starts. He’s struck out 51 with 12 walks in 48.1 innings and has surrendered just one home run. That’s pretty good, yet he’s somehow only 1-3 over that stretch because his offense is putrid. Maybe the Cubs can add to that frustration.

The strikeouts remain way down for Skenes, from 33.1% last year to just 26.7% so far, but he’s trimmed his stellar walk rate to 5.8% and is also giving up fewer homers despite more fly balls. More than just a flamethrower, his pitchability is elite. The reigning NL Rookie of the Year wasn’t content with his six-pitch mix from last season, so he added a sinker and upped his sweeper usage by around 50% while shifting the rest of his repertoire around.

I probably can’t tell you much about Skenes that you don’t already know, but I’ll say that I think he’s better than Skubal. His Baseball Savant percentile rankings are all red, with his 6.6-foot extension sitting lowest at the 64th. All of his pitches other than the curve are major plus offerings, and that hook is only thrown 4% of the time anyway.

Dude hasn’t allowed more than one run in over a month and hasn’t walked more than two in his last five starts. The Cubs gave him his worst start of the season on May 1, pushing him out after just five innings with a mere two strikeouts and four walks. Rather than feeling good about that, I’m concerned that he’s going to flip the script completely. Guess we’ll find out soon enough.

First pitch is scheduled for 1:20pm CT on Marquee and 670 The Score, though the tarp is on the field as of this publication and we could see a delay if rain moves in.

see you soon, friends!

watch the game live on the Marquee Sports Network app. pic.twitter.com/iSKFC3ymrO

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 13, 2025