Chicago Cubs Lineup (5/4/25): Busch Batting Cleanup, Amaya Catching, Imanaga Going for Sweep
The Cubs won the first two games of this series in decisive fashion and now head into the matinee finale with a chance to further distance themselves from a team that’s run the division for far too long. This is by far their toughest matchup of the series, at least on paper, so they may need to lean more heavily on the pitching than they’ve had to previously.
Shōta Imanaga has been alternating good and bad games over his last five starts, following dominant outings with ones in which he gives up five runs. A lot of that has been the product of bad luck, as he has done a good job of staying away from barrels for the most part. He’s got very little experience against these Brewers hitters, just 18 total at-bats, but they carry a .778 OPS into Sunday’s contest.
Holding them at bay will be key if the Cubs keep up with their own trends against their opponent in this one. Ian Happ is in left, followed by Kyle Tucker in right and Seiya Suzuki at DH. Michael Busch slides back to the cleanup spot with Nico Hoerner at second base and the money-making Pete Crow-Armstrong in center. Miguel Amaya does the catching, Dansby Swanson is at short, and Jon Berti is at third.
Since moving down to the eight-hole, Swanson is batting .429 with a 272 wRC+ and three homers. Gee, who could have seen that coming? I mean, no way was there a reason to believe a rebound was coming.
Swanson and others will need to continue the hot hitting against Brewers righty Freddy Peralta, who has owned this group over the years. In 117 total at-bats, the Cubs are batting just .171 with 42 strikeouts and only five homers. Happ is batting .077 with 12 of those Ks, and Swanson is 0-for-15 with seven punchies. And from the looks of it, the 28-year-old is pitching better than ever in the early going.
His cutty 95 mph fastball makes up nearly 60% of his repertoire and sees equal usage against batters on both sides of the plate. Then comes the changeup, which is his best pitch despite only making up 20% of his repertoire. He’s comfortable throwing it right-on-right, which is part of the reason for his strong platoon splits. Lefties boast much better numbers across the slash line this season, though Peralta’s career numbers are much more neutral.
The curve and slider are decent pitches, but neither stands out as being particularly effective. It’s interesting that Peralta generates relatively little contact on the ground despite locating everything but the fastball way down in the zone. He’s susceptible to the longball when he makes mistakes, so the Cubs might need to capitalize on a few of those this afternoon.
That .232 BABIP against indicates that there’s plenty of room for negative regression, just like we saw with José Quintana last night. While Peralta is far more dynamic than the former Cub, he still has weaknesses that can be exploited. We’ll find out soon enough whether the Cubs can make that happen.
First pitch from Milwaukee is at 1:10pm CT on Marquee and 670 The Score.
3 of 3 in Brew City.
Watch the game live on the Marquee Sports Network app. pic.twitter.com/d2j33twGFM
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 4, 2025
