The Cubs slated Cade Horton, Matthew Boyd and Shōta Imanaga to start the three games this week against the Mets.
That would, logically speaking, set those three up to start the three Wild Card Series games
against the Padres next week.
For the purposes of this discussion, I am going to assume that Horton is 100 percent healthy, that his MRI will show nothing wrong, and he’ll be ready to go for the series opener Tuesday.
Should Boyd and Imanaga start the other two games?
Here are a few numbers (all through Wednesday’s games). The Padres are 62-49 vs. RH starters, 25-23 vs. LH starters — not much difference there. Overall, though, the Padres hit RHP somewhat better, with a .718 OPS, while they have a .684 OPS against left-handers.
Boyd faced the Padres twice in April and allowed two runs in 11.1 innings (1.59 ERA) with no home runs given up. Imanaga also faced the Padres twice in April and allowed two runs (one earned, 0.73 ERA) in 12.1 innings with two home runs allowed. If you’re wondering how a pitcher could allow two runs on two homers with only one of the runs being earned, it was because two errors wer charged on foul balls hit by Manny Machado April 15 in San Diego. Machado homered right after that.
Anyway, those numbers would seem to indicate Boyd and Imanaga should go. But… neither one of those pitchers has been good lately, and both have allowed quite a few home runs since the All-Star break, 18 by Imanaga in 71 innings and nine by Boyd in 61 innings. And much of the Padres’ power comes from the right side (Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. in particular).
So would it be better to start Jameson Taillon in Game 2? Or just have Taillon and Colin Rea ready to go in long relief if Imanaga and/or Boyd struggle?
These are likely things Cubs management is trying to suss out before next Tuesday. At this writing the Cubs still haven’t listed any starters for the weekend series against the Cardinals, and they will have to win at least one of those games to nail down home field for the Wild Card Series.
So what would you do?
