Chicago Cubs Lineup (10/6/25): Turner Leads Off, Imanaga Starting
Man, I hope I’m wrong about this one. The debatable decision to start Matthew Boyd in Game 1 backfired spectacularly, and now the Cubs are rolling with another lefty whose second-half performance left a lot to be desired. It would be one thing if we were talking about an opponent that struggles against southpaws, but the Brewers are one of the better-hitting teams in those matchups. Shota Imanaga is going to have his hands full tonight, but at least he’s on regular rest after a short outing last week against the Padres.
Imanaga has faced the Brewers three times this season, with the first time being the game in which he suffered a hamstring pull that shelved him for nearly two months. He’s given up seven runs on 12 hits and three walks over 17.2 innings, and he also struck out 17 batters. More of the same would be nice tonight, as the Cubs can ill afford to fall behind early yet again.
I’m sure no one will have strong opinions about Justin Turner leading off and playing first instead of Michael Busch, but this is all about trying to maximize the matchup. He may only bat once tonight. Nico Hoerner is at second, Kyle Tucker is the DH, and Seiya Suzuki cleans up in right. Ian Happ is in left, Carson Kelly does the catching, Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center, and Dansby Swanson is at short. Matt Shaw bats ninth at third base.
They’re facing lefty reliever Aaron Ashby, the nephew of longtime big league pitcher Andy Ashby, who is making just his second start of the season. The younger Ashby has pitched against the Cubs three times this season, giving up at least one run each time. He has gone more than one inning in 27 of his 43 appearances, with the longest outings both coming against the Cubs (3.2 IP on August 19 and 3.1 IP on July 29). He recorded five outs against them on June 19, so it’s reasonable to believe Pat Murphy will try to get more than one inning from him tonight.
For the sake of reference, the most recent of those appearances was the one in which Craig Counsell pinch-hit Turner for Owen Caissie when Ashby entered. It was the right call as the Cubs went on to win the game 4-1 to help them take the season series from the Brewers. As for whether having Turner start is a good idea or whether Ashby opening this one will be the right call for Murphy, we’re about to find out.
The Brewers skipper isn’t revealing his strategy for the rest of the game as to whether he’ll turn to righty Quinn Priester or Johnny Wholestaff. Priester has faced the Cubs three times this season, one of which came as a bulk man after opener Tyler Alexander crumbled early. Priester fared even worse, giving up seven earned runs on six hits and four walks over just 4.1 innings. He was much better in his two starts and has pitched well in general this season with fairly even splits.
Ashby has more traditional splits, using his 98 mph over-the-top sinker to get grounders at an incredible 62.4% this season. His big-breaking 82 mph is decent and his depthy slider is not very good, but it’s all about the two-seam with this guy. The Cubs may need to beat him with small-ball, or just wait him out to see who the Brewers bring in next.
First pitch is at 8:08pm CT on TBS, HBO Max, and 670 The Score.
Ed. note: I was just heading out for a bike ride when the lineup dropped, so I was on my phone. As prescient as it was to have included the Turner anecdote in my draft, I didn’t have the time or ability to include a few extra notes. It’s really the same thing as using an opener in that Counsell is just going with a pinch-hitter right out of the gate. But where it’s even better is that Busch is still available the rest of the way if and when the Brewers go with a righty.
The numbers are pretty negligible in what figures to be a single plate appearance, but they do strongly suggest that Turner is a better option.
- Busch vs LHP: .207/.274/.368, 81 wRC+
- Turner vs LHP: .276/.330/.429, 112 wRC+
- Ashby vs LHP: .193/.299/.241, .255 wOBA
- Ashby vs RHP: .245/.312/.348, .293 wOBA
