Chicago Cubs Lineup (9/27/26): Imanaga Starting Weird, Meaningless Game
The Cubs’ postseason path was determined last night, as the Padres beat the Diamondbacks and the Phillies lost to the Rays. That means today’s game in Tampa means absolutely nothing for either team involved, making it the first time the last six games that the Cubs possibly losing won’t matter. They pissed away their chance to host the opening round of the postseason by losing four of their last five, so now they will have to travel to San Diego to face a team that is as hot as any in the league.
Shōta Imanaga will be on the bump, ensuring that he is not part of the team’s playoff rotation, and Craig Counsell will probably ride his starter as long as possible in order to keep the bullpen fresh. Matthew Boyd could be the Game 1 starter on Tuesday, but Kevin Gausman could get the nod if his tender left shoulder allows for it. Both David Peterson and Clay Holmes will be on regular rest for Game 2, so it’s just a matter of how the Cubs view the matchups.
Craig Counsell has given away nothing regarding his plans, stating only that they need to find a way to get 27 outs, but we should know more soon. In the meantime, it’d be nice to see the offense score more than three runs.
Pete Crow-Armstrong leads off in center, Alex Bregman is the DH, Michael Busch is at first, and Ian Happ is in left. Michael Conforto plays right, Nico Hoerner is at second, Pedro Ramírez is at third, and Dansby Swanson handles short. Miguel Amaya is the catcher this afternoon.
Going for Boston is 30-year-old righty Tanner Houck, who was activated from the 60-day IL this morning to make the start. He’s been out since last May due to elbow reconstruction, and he’s only thrown eight innings over four rehab appearances this year. Houck probably won’t go more than two innings, at which point Boston will turn to a bulk reliever or two who won’t be needed for the playoffs.
It’s fitting that this throwaway game is the last I’ll be previewing for the regular season because I’ve — perhaps noticeably — been dragging ass a bit here lately. The site has been in a downward spiral for a while now, and I fear that the looming lockout will do irreparable damage. Short of a deep postseason run for the Cubs and a miraculous early CBA agreement, I don’t see how we can keep this thing running.
Revenues are down about 90% from 2019, so we’re barely able to break even. We may try to keep it going by dropping our AP Images subscription, which means going back to the scrappy days of using video screenshots. Cutting other corners might help as well, but my real concern is that the passion just may not be there. I’ve whined about this before, though, so this could just be a little bit of catharsis.
That said, these previews might cease even if we do continue with the site in general. They simply don’t draw eyeballs outside of the 4-5 regulars here who tend to read about everything we post.
First pitch is at 2:05pm CT on Marquee and The Score.
