Friday notes…
- BEATING THE GOOD TEAMS: The Cubs are 17-16 this season in games against opponents that had a winning record going into a game. Fourteen of their last 15 wins have come against teams that were above .500, including the last four. The lone win against an underachiever was the last of their 10 straight wins, at Texas on May 8. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- BETTER UNDER THE LIGHTS: The Cubs’ wins the last two nights improved their record to 11-5 in the second of back-to-back night games. They are 18-11 in all games at night, just 13-15 in daylight. Tonight’s game will be Cubs’ fourth of nine in a row under the lights, their longest such stretch of the season. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- ABOUT GIVING UP RUNS: The Pirates’ two runs last night both came in the sixth inning. The Cubs had allowed exactly one run in at least one inning of each of their previous 11 games, since they had shut out the Braves at Atlanta, 2-0, on May 14. Before that, they had allowed a single run in one inning of nine straight games, since May 3, when they gave up two runs twice in an 8-4 win at home over the Diamondbacks. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
- TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: The Cubs hire Buck O’Neil as a coach. He becomes the first Black coach in MLB history. More on O’Neil’s long baseball career here. It happened 64 years ago today, Tuesday, May 29, 1962.
Cubs lineup:
Cardinals lineup:
Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Andre Pallante, RHP
Shōta Imanaga was having a pretty good year until his last two starts, which were both awful. I’ll just note that half of all the runs he’s allowed this year (15 of 30) were in those two starts.
But here’s a team he does well against! Career vs. Cardinals: Four starts, 2.84 ERA, 0.789 WHIP, just three home runs in 25.1 innings, only one walk
and 25 strikeouts.
Do more of that, Shōta.
This is Andre Pallante’s second full year in the Cardinals rotation. Last year wasn’t so good, with a 5.31 ERA in 31 starts, and he led MLB in wild pitches with 12.
This year has been somewhat better, and he has allowed three or fewer runs in eight of his 10 starts.
Career vs. Cubs: 12 games (five starts), 4.40 ERA, 1.674 WHIP, a low K rate (15 of 130 batters, or 11.5 percent).
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Here is the weather forecast for the area around Busch Stadium.
Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.
Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
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The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.
You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).
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