Chicago Cubs Lineup (5/14/25): Swanson Leads Off, Turner 1B, Taillon Tossing
How much better does it feel heading into the final game of the series up 2-0 rather than tied 1-1, especially when the Cubs have been so bad in the last games of their sets this season? They’re 7-0 at home and 11-4 overall in series openers, but 1-5 at home and 4-10 overall in closers. Picking up their second sweep feels like a must, especially with the Cardinals riding a hot stretch.
They’ll need a much better effort from Jameson Taillon, who gave up five earned runs over four innings against the Mets. Four of the nine hits against him cleared the outfield wall and put the Cubs in an early hole that felt deeper than it really was. Not that it mattered when they ended up scoring only two runs. The Marlins don’t have nearly the same firepower as the Mets, but we’ve already seen so far in this series that they can still punish mistakes.
Taillon really didn’t have anything other than the curveball working in his last start, and his fastball was particularly bad. That’s been the case for the heater over his last three starts, a big change from early in the season. Not great when he’s throwing more than in recent seasons. There’s a point at which a pitcher can throw too many strikes, and Taillon might be there. Or maybe he just needs a get-right game against a lesser opponent.
Regardless of how he pitches, the offense really needs to get going early tonight. They’ve scored a total of one run across the first four innings in each of the last three games and have been sluggish more often than not over the last week. Craig Counsell is moving things around in hopes of shaking off their last-game malaise, starting with Dansby Swanson at the top of the order due to his hot hitting and the matchup.
Kyle Tucker is in left, Seiya Suzuki is in right, Carson Kelly cleans up as the DH, and Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center. Nico Hoerner plays second, Miguel Amaya is the catcher, Justin Turner handles first after last night’s heroics, and Jon Berti s at third.
They’re up against lefty Ryan Weathers, who is making his first start of the season after spending several weeks on the IL due to a left flexor muscle strain. He missed about half of last season with a strained left index finger, but pitched well over 16 starts. He has never pitched as many as 95 MLB innings through parts of four seasons with the Padres and Marlins, and last year was the first in which he posted anything lower than a 5.32 ERA.
The southpaw is the son of former Reds pitcher David Weathers, and Ryan Dempster shared during Tuesday’s broadcast that the precocious youngster was blasting BP homers at Great American Ball Park as a kid. I find that a little hard to believe since the younger Weathers didn’t turn 10 until after his old man retired in 2009, but it’s a fun story. Maybe it was like with Freddie Freeman and his son Charlie, where they did soft toss near the outfield wall.
If there’s even a grain of truth to Dempster’s story, it’s certainly not inconceivable that the kid could bang, it’s even more impressive considering Weathers has The Curse. Not that we’ll ever see it since pitchers don’t bat these days, but a lefty who bats right-handed has a tough go of it. It’s just a good thing Weathers throws left handed, as that’s probably the only reason he was able to hang around prior to last season.
Over the course of 156 innings over 31 starts and 15 relief appearances, Weathers had a 5.88 ERA with 118 strikeouts and 63 walks and 32 home runs allowed. He was also a very even-split pitcher who didn’t do much of anything to limit left-handed hitters. Then came 2024, when he revamped his changeup and found more consistent results with his sweeper.
Weathers also upped his fastball velocity from 94 to 96 mph last season, adding a little velo separation from his 86-87 mph offspeed offering. The biggest difference was getting more depth on his change, taking it from an average of around 26 inches of drop over his first three seasons to 33 inches last year. That made it his best pitch by a very wide margin, though the sweeper was also much more effective than the depthless bullet slider he’d been throwing.
Increasing his sinker usage was a good move too, as it gets more arm-side run with a little less ride than the four-seam. This is a very different version of Weathers than the Cubs have seen before, though that’s not saying much because he doesn’t have a great deal of experience against them. Based on what he did this spring and during his rehab stint, the lefty may have even more changes in store for this season.
Weathers was touching 99 during spring training and got there at least twice during a rehab start last week, so that could present some challenges. Regardless of how sharp he looks, Weathers probably isn’t going very deep in this one.
Ryan Weathers in his 3rd (and final?) minor league rehab start:
5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K (57 pitches/40 strikes)
Fastball up to 99 mph 🔥 pic.twitter.com/6HDjwc1yAI
— Fish On First (@FishOnFirst) May 9, 2025
First pitch is at 6:40pm CT on Marquee and 670 The Score.
