Chicago Cubs Lineup (6/6/25): Happ Leads Off, Kelly Batting Cleanup, Brown Starting
The Cubs have won seven straight series since dropping consecutive sets to the Giants and Mets a month ago, but now they face the team with the best record — and best pitcher — in baseball. What might have been little more than a novelty matchup at the start of the season is drawing national attention and causing quite a stir in Detroit. We saw how the city and its fans still have life with the Lion’ recent success, and now their other big cats are expecting standing-room-only crowds all weekend.
Ben Brown gets the honor of toeing the slab in the opener, and he’ll do it without an, uh, opener. After equipping him with Drew Pomeranz training wheels the last time out, Craig Counsell is putting his two-pitch righty back out there in the 1st inning. Brown has been throwing his changeup more often and has been getting better results, so that remains a trend to keep an eye on.
The troublesome part about today’s game is that he may need to repeat his performance from last week against the Reds. Even that might not be enough, but he’ll be fine if he comes out cutting his pitches loose rather than trying to be too cute in the early going.
Ian Happ leads off in left, followed by Kyle Tucker in right, Seiya Suzuki at DH, and Carson Kelly behind the plate. Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center, Dansby Swanson is at short, and Nico Hoerner plays second. Justin Turner is at first and Matt Shaw holds down the hot corner.
They’re facing all-world lefty Tarik Skubal, who has not allowed a run in his last two starts. Over his last 16 innings, he’s got 20 strikeouts to no walks and just four hits allowed. That stretch includes a complete-game shutout on 94 pitches, something like 71 of which were strikes. He also threw the last pitch of that outing at 102.6 mph, which is simply unthinkable. Like, you can definitely think about it, but my brain warps a little more every time I try to process the idea.
As good as his upper 90s four-seam and sinker are, Skubal’s changeup leads the way in terms of his pitch mix and value. The firm 89 mph gets a lot more usage against right-handed hitters, but that’s mainly because opposing managers keep many of their left-handed hitters on the bench against Skubal. He’s throwing both the change and four-seam more often to like-handed hitters, though, and has already logged more often each to lefties than he did all of last year.
With apologies for keeping this a little shallower than usual, I’m working remotely with a garbage network. The mobile version of our editing suite has also been hot trash lately, plus there’s not much else to say about Skubal. Unless he’s off his game, the Cubs are probably going to need to get to the bullpen to win this one.
First pitch is at 6pm CT on Apple TV+ and 670 The Score.
