Chicago Cubs Lineup (6/13/26): PCA Leads Off, Bregman DH, Ramírez 3B, Brown Bump Day
The Cubs have a baby win streak going after ending one series with a win and starting the next in strong fashion. It’s almost enough to make you want to stay up and watch them, which I actually did last night in spite of my proclamations. There wasn’t much else happening, and the weather was perfect for a fire on the patio, so I set up the TV and relaxed.
Pushing the streak to three seems very likely with Ben Brown on the bump. Had he accumulated enough innings to qualify, his 1.74 ERA would rank third in MLB behind Jacob Misiorowski (1.34) and Christopher Sanchez (1.54). Does anyone else find that two-tenths stair step a little odd? Not as odd as The Miz dotting a 104.5 mph fastball last night. My goodness.
Anywho, Brown just needs to get a little help from the bats to keep the train rolling. Pete Crow-Armstrong leads off in center, Alex Bregman is the DH, and Michael Busch is at first. Seiya Suzuki is in right, Ian Happ is in left, Nico Hoerner is at second, and Pedro Ramírez handles third. Miguel Amaya does the catching and Dansby Swanson is at short.
They’re facing 25-year-old righty Trevor McDonald for the second time in a week, and they’ll have to do much better tonight if they hope to win. This is the eighth start of the season and 12th total MLB appearance for the 2019 11th-round pick out of George County High School in Lucedale, MS. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same school that produced Justin Steele. Or maybe it’s because I just repurposed the writeup from that game.
McDonald worked his way diligently through a series of injuries to make his debut in 2024 after dominating the lower levels of the minors. That has not translated to the upper levels or MLB, though it was enough to stymie the Cubs. The righty struck out six over five innings of one-run ball, getting plenty of grounders.
McDonald works from a low arm slot and pitches to contact with a sinker-heavy repertoire meant to induce grounders. That 94 mph two-seam makes up 60% of his pitches, then he’s got an 86 mph slider with more sweep and depth than most that accounts for nearly 30% of his remaining offerings. His 84 mph changeup plays way down in the zone and has not been effective at all thus far.
That was the case against the Cubs, who were able to handle the offspeed pitch with ease. They had trouble with the other two offerings, hence the poor results. McDonald has not allowed much to like-handed hitters so far, holding them to a .174 average with a .209 wOBA that includes no homers. Lefties have fared much better, however, with a .284 average and .371 wOBA and three homers.
Three of the four hits McDonald surrendered last week came to lefties, with PCA, Moisés Ballesteros, and Happ all getting to him. The latter was a triple to right that unsurprisingly was not cashed in. With righties slashing .065/.147/.065 against McDonald at home and lefties putting up a .290/.361/.419 line, I’d say the Cubs might need to rely on the platoon splits in this one.
First pitch is at 9:05pm CT on Marquee and The Score.
Our Saturday crew.
Watch the game live on @WatchMarquee. pic.twitter.com/25v8ynBwVx
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 13, 2026
