Chicago Cubs Lineup (8/28/25): Busch Leads Off, Tucker DH, Caissie in RF, Imanaga Starting

The Cubs are on the precipice of being swept for the first time in a real series, which would be a huge bummer coming on the heels of winning three straight in Anaheim. With just five total runs scored in San Francisco so far, Craig Counsell‘s team has really just been doing what it’s done all month. We’re talking about MLB’s lowest-scoring offense in August despite playing at least one more game than any of the seven teams immediately above them.

Only the Cardinals have scored less in the second half, and they’re only one run behind the Cubs since the break. Every other team in MLB has scored at least six more runs than the Cubs over the last 37 games, so we’re not talking about a nominal slump or something here. Counsell catches a lot of flak for his lineups and personnel choices, but his players are doing a really good job of making him look bad. Sorry for the horse glue stuff, I’ll be happy to find a new topic once one becomes readily available.

Shōta Imanaga is a great option to play stopper, as long as he repeats his last two starts of seven innings apiece with no more than two runs allowed. It’s gotten to the point where an opponent scoring four means the Cubs are likely to lose, which isn’t great for the pitching staff. Fingers crossed.

Counsell won’t get much static for today’s lineup, even if batting Michael Busch in the leadoff spot might not be the best option. Kyle Tucker bats second as the DH, which means….wait…could it be? Ian Happ is in left (keep going), Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center (good), and Nico Hoerner is at second (might as well just keep him in the top spot at this point, but whatever).

Then it’s Owen Caissie getting a rare and very overdue start in right for Seiya Suzuki. Praise be to God! This is Caissie’s first start in eight days, and playing the whole game could mean getting as many plate appearances as he’s accumulated over the team’s last four games. Maybe the delayed lineup announcement was the result of someone convincing Cousell that something needed to change. Or it’s just that he loves putting his lineups out later than anyone else.

Dansby Swanson is at short, Reese McGuire is the catcher, and Matt Shaw is back in the ninth spot because he went 0-for-4 with a strikeout last night. We can only hope this is the start of a few games off for Suzuki to reset.

They’re facing Giants ace Logan Webb, one of the best and most consistent starters in baseball over the last five seasons. His ERA has hovered between 2.90 and 3.47 that whole time, and his FIP staying between 2.59 and 3.16 tells us he’s actually been even better. Give this man an elite defense and he might already have at least one Cy Young. He finished second in the voting in 2023 despite not earning an All-Star nod, and he should get a good chunk of votes at the end of this season as well.

Webb is a workhorse who has led MLB in innings pitched each of the last two seasons and is currently atop the list this year as well. He averages more than a strikeout per inning, is in the 91st percentile for walk rate, and allows homers at a lower clip than all but four of the other qualified starters in the game. He’s kind of a throwback with his 93 mph bowling-ball sinker and dive-bombing 87 mph changeup that was by far the best in the game a couple years ago.

His sweeper, cutter, and four-seam are effectively show-me pitches to set up his two big weapons, with the former going more to righties and the latter two more to lefties. Webb is very comfortable throwing the change to all hitters, but he’ll deploy the sinker about twice as frequently to righties. His splits skew pretty heavily toward traditional due to those secondaries being weak this year, though even having lefties batting .287 with a .334 wOBA doesn’t hurt him much.

Having a 53% groundball rate and limiting walks means Webb erases most of his mistakes with double plays and weak contact. Happ is the only Cubs with any measure of success against him over a significant enough number of attempts, and even that is only over 12 plate appearances. The outfielder carries a 1.235 OPS with a homer into this game, though Suzuki and Swanson have also donged against Webb.

This is maybe the worst possible matchup to have with a sweep on the line, but maybe that just means the Cubs will wake up and start a hot streak that makes us all look dumb for doubting them. A boy can dream. First pitch is at 2:45pm CT on Marquee and 670 The Score.

Series finale in SF.

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— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 28, 2025