Chicago Cubs Lineup (4/5/26, Game 2): Hoerner Leads Off, Carlson in LF, Imanaga Pitching

The Cubs kept up their trend of swapping wins and losses as they took the first half of Sunday’s doubleheader to get back to even on the season. Now they have a chance to not only win two games in the same day, but to win two in a row for the first time in 2026. They might want to do a better job of scoring runs than they did in Game 1, even if the conditions favor the pitchers.

That’s a good thing for Shōta Imanaga as he looks to balance his own record. He’s given up 28 homers in his last 20 starts, including the postseason, dating back to his return from a hamstring injury on June 26 of last year. If we factor in spring training, it’s 33 homers in 25 starts, with four of those games featuring three dingers against him.

That was always going to be an issue for Imanaga as a fly-ball pitcher, but it’s fine as long as he’s limiting them to solo shots. In his season debut, however, he gave up consecutive two-out singles before Joey Wiemer put one out. To be fair, the result was much more about a good piece of hitting against a splitter that came in well below the zone. It’s just really hard to dismiss in light of Imanaga’s track record.

It hasn’t helped that the offense keeps pulling a disappearing act, with a total of eight runs scored in the Cubs’ four losses. The last two of those have featured just one total run, so it really wouldn’t have mattered how well they pitched.

Nico Hoerner will try to get things started at second base, then it’s Alex Bregman at third, and Ian Happ at DH. Carson Kelly is the catcher, Michael Busch is at first, Dansby Swanson — who needs to start challenging bad calls in leverage situations — is at short, and Matt Shaw is in right. Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center and Dylan Carlson is in left.

They’re facing Parker Messick, a 25-year-old lefty who made seven starts at the end of last season after moving quickly through the minors. A second-round pick (54 overall) out of Florida State in 2022, Messick posted big strikeout numbers with solid peripherals in the minors. He kept that up in the bigs by avoiding walks and limiting hard contact. He doesn’t figure to be a big strikeout guy at this level, but his arsenal should keep him away from barrels.

Messick throws from a high arm angle — 42 degrees so far this season, 45 last year — and his stuff all tends to be very cutty. Only his changeup, which he throws over 20% of the time, stays more true to expectations. Everything else has more glove-side movement than usual, with his curve getting super slurvy. His 93 mph four-seam works up in the zone and his change works down with loads of depth.

He throws his sinker down and to the arm side, his slider is thrown higher than most, and his curve can end up in the right-handed batter’s box. His splits are about what you’d expect, with righties hitting him significantly better, but the sample is too small to be super conclusive. The Cubs are probably going to need to string hits together, as he doesn’t walk many batters.

I’m feeling a little better about the Cubs in this one just because they have shown the ability to bounce back well after poor showings, but I don’t like the way they have tended to roll over after wins. Even with the weather working against them, the bats have been pretty disappointing so far.

First pitch is at 3:30pm CT on Marquee and The Score.

One more for your Sunday.

Watch the game live on @WatchMarquee. pic.twitter.com/sKGkhQETNH

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 5, 2026