The Cubs will try to keep the good times rolling Tuesday night at Wrigley Field, where they can grab a third straight series win and their fifth in the last six. They’re coming off Monday’s 3-2 walk-off victory over the Padres, and the lineup has been tweaked just enough to keep things interesting.
Chicago is also dealing with a rough-weather night. The forecast calls for heat, humidity and wind, with gusts reaching 28 mph and the breeze carrying out to center field at 14 mph.
Pete Crow-Armstrong leads things off, followed by Alex Bregman in the two spot and Seiya Suzuki batting third. Carson Kelly hits cleanup, with Michael Busch sliding down to fifth. Nico Hoerner is sixth, Ian Happ seventh, Dansby Swanson eighth and Kevin Alcántara back in right field at ninth.
Suzuki’s jump to the three-hole comes after his walk-off single Monday. Busch, meanwhile, moves down from third after a slower stretch.
Alcántara’s return is one of the bigger lineup notes. Matt Shaw landed on the IL on Monday with a wrist injury, and the Cubs brought Alcántara back up from Triple-A Iowa. It’s his second MLB stint of 2026 after he appeared in 12 games from May 23 to June 7.
The 23-year-old has been productive in Iowa, where he’s hitting .273 with 17 home runs and a .936 OPS. The big league version has been tougher to unlock.
Since debuting in 2024, Alcántara has gone 6-for-30 in 25 career MLB games with one RBI, two walks, one stolen base and nine strikeouts. This season, he’s 1-for-9 with a walk and four strikeouts.
He’s often valued for what he can do on the bases, but his last run with the Cubs ended after a costly baserunning mistake against the San Francisco Giants on June 7. Now he’s back in a spot that feels like a real turning point, with Chicago swinging the bats better and a chance to finally build some momentum at the major league level.
San Diego counters with a lineup that leans heavily to the right against Matthew Boyd. Fernando Tatis Jr. starts at second base, with Samad Taylor, Manny Machado, Miguel Andujar, Ty France, Jackson Merrill, Xander Bogaerts, Jase Bowen and Freddy Fermin filling out the order. Merrill is the lone left-handed bat for manager Craig Stammen.
Merrill’s season has been a grind compared with what he’s done before. The 23-year-old is hitting just .213 with a .617 OPS in 80 games, the worst production of his young career so far.
Machado, though, has had plenty of success against Boyd. He’s 8-for-16 with three RBI and a 1.221 OPS in the matchup, making him the most dangerous name in the Padres’ group against the left-hander.
Boyd is making his second start since coming off the IL on June 25. In his first outing back, he worked 4.2 scoreless innings against the Mets, allowing four hits while striking out four and walking four. He was held to 76 pitches in that start, so the Cubs should get more length from him this time.
That said, Boyd’s last look at San Diego didn’t go well. In April, he gave up five earned runs on eight hits in four innings during a 9-7 Cubs loss on the road.
The Padres’ offense isn’t the same unit it was then, either. They were 19-9 at that point and rolling, but since then they’ve gone 24-31 and entered Tuesday with a .222 team batting average, the worst in baseball. They’re also seeing a southpaw for the second straight game after Shota Imanaga held them to two runs over 6.1 innings in Monday’s win.
San Diego is starting Sears, who is making just his second start of the 2026 season after spending the first three months at Triple-A El Paso. In his most recent outing, he gave the Braves 5.2 innings, struck out five and allowed two earned runs.
Only Bregman and Kelly have faced Sears before, and both have handled him well. Bregman is 8-for-20 with a .350 average, a 1.159 OPS, two home runs and five RBI against him, while Kelly has two hits in two career at-bats. The Cubs will look to keep that kind of damage going as they try to stack another win at home.
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