Chicago Cubs Lineup (3/29/26): Busch Leads Off, Conforto in RF, Imanaga Starting
The Cubs got to .500 yesterday, thereby eliminating the very real possibility they were going to go winless on the season. They got a strong pitching performance from Cade Horton, all kinds of offense, and a little help from Washington’s defense to roll to an easy victory.
Now comes a chance to build a modest win streak with Shōta Imanaga on the hill. He wasn’t terribly consistent across five spring starts, nor was he terrible. The home run continued to buzz in his ear, but it was more like the annoyance of a mosquito than the potential pain of a hornet. The lefty increased his pitch count with each outing, getting up to 81 in his final start, and he closed with 13 strikeouts across 9.2 innings between his last two appearances.
It’s all about keeping that fastball up in the zone and avoiding center-cut misses that end up traveling a long way in the other direction. That sounds way too basic, but it’s really that simple when it comes to Imanaga finding success. If he can catch a groove early, he and the Cubs should be in good shape this afternoon.
They’ll be in great shape if the lineup comes through again, starting with Michael Busch at first base and Alex Bregman at third. Ian Happ is in left, Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center, Nico Hoerner is at second, and Carson Kelly is behind the plate. Moisés Ballesteros serves as the DH, adamant Swanson plays short, and Michael Conforto makes his official Cubs debut in right.
They’re facing 29-year-old righty Jake Irvin, who is in his fourth MLB season after being selected in the fourth round of the 2018 draft. He missed 2020 due to COVID, then was out all the following season following Tommy John surgery. With that context, he actually moved pretty quickly through the system. That’s a little surprising because he had a 4.79 ERA at Double-A in 2022 and then posted a 5.64 at Triple-A the following season before being called up.
Irvin’s results with Washington have followed suit, as he’s got a 4.94 career ERA through 90 starts. Saturday starter Miles Mikolas had only one red slider on Baseball Savant last year, which was his walk rate, and Irvin was mostly deep blue except for his 7.1-foot extension. You don’t even need to understand all of these metrics to know this isn’t good.
Irvin doesn’t throw hard, doesn’t strike many batters out, issues too many walks, and gives up too much hard contact. He’ll have to make some major adjustments to keep his spot in the rotation, though pitching for a moribund team gives him a lot more leeway than he’d otherwise be granted. The first thing I’d recommend is leaning into the sinker a little more.
Irvin’s best quality last year was the ability to get grounders at a slightly above-average rate, and the sinker was his only pitch that really stood out. His four-seam got disastrous results, so swapping some of those out seems to make sense. The cutter was also very good on a per-pitch basis, but he threw it so sparingly that it didn’t have much of an impact.
Something was off with Irvin last year, as his fastball, curve, and change had all worked fairly well in 2024. Getting back to that and working in the zone more often could see him get back to something more suitable for a back-end guy. In the meantime, perhaps he could serve up a few big hits.
First pitch is at 1:20pm CT on Marquee and The Score.
