Friday notes…
- ROAD WARRIORS: The Cubs are 38-31 on the road this season, including 6-5 in first games of road trips. They are only 10-12 on Friday but 6-5 on Friday on the road. They are 37-30 against teams that had a winning record going into games but 15-17 on the road. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- GET ON THE BOARD FIRST: The Cubs are 48-20 when they have scored first, including 23-12 on the road. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- HITS vs. K’s: They won last night despite making only three hits while striking out seven times. They 18-44 with fewer hits than strikeouts, 10-3 with the same number of each and 51-15 with more hits than whiffs. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Shōta Imanaga, Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge combine on a no-hitter against the Pirates at Wrigley Field, the first Cubs no-no at home in 52 years. The Cubs win the game 12-0 as Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong both homer and have three hits. It happened two years ago today, Thursday, Sept. 4, 2024.
Cubs lineup:
Marlins lineup:
Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Janson Junk, RHP
Well. Personally, if I were making the decisions for the Cubs, I would not have Shōta Imanaga make this start. He’s been back to bad Shōta lately, with a 7.13 ERA and 1.528 WHIP over
his last four starts, with eight (!) home runs in 17.2 innings, yikes. But also 23 strikeouts over that span, so who knows?
Imanaga has not faced the Marlins since 2024 and that team has had a major makeover since. Only one current Marlins player, Otto Lopez, has ever faced him, and Lopez is 0-for-5. Maybe that will be helpful for Shōta. We can hope, anyway.
This is Janson Junk’s sixth MLB season but his first as a fulltime starter and the results have been meh: 20 starts (21 games), 4.11 ERA, 1.301 WHIP. He doesn’t strike out a lot of guys (16 percent K rate) but doesn’t walk many either (6.4 percent walk rate). So Cubs hitters should look to put the ball in play.
His only career appearance against the Cubs was two innings of relief two years ago when he was with the Brewers. Junk was with Milwaukee in 2023 also, so Craig Counsell might have some familiarity with him.
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Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.
Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
MLB.com Gameday
Baseball-reference.com game preview
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