The Cubs can finish off a sweep of the Dodgers on Wednesday at Wrigley Field, and they’re doing it with a lineup that looks a little different than the one that rolled to another convincing win on Tuesday.
Chicago’s latest victory was powered by Javier Assad, who turned in one of the best outings of his career and basically went pitch for pitch with Tarik Skubal through several innings of one-run baseball. The Cubs kept hanging around, then cracked it open in the seventh with timely hits from the top of the order. It was another sign of how locked in this group has looked, even before the arrival of its two biggest deadline additions.
Craig Counsell is giving Pete Crow-Armstrong the day off in center field, but he is not taking his bat out of the lineup. Crow-Armstrong will DH for the first time this season and only the second time in his career.
That move becomes easier to manage with Tyrone Taylor available to cover center. Taylor gives the Cubs a steady glove in the middle of the outfield, and with another left-hander on the mound, it also lets Chicago keep Crow-Armstrong’s bat in play.
Ian Happ is also back in left field after sitting for the first time on Tuesday. Counsell had suggested a platoon in left could develop because of Happ’s issues against southpaws, but Happ will be out there again with another lefty starting.
The Cubs are also giving rookie Pedro Ramírez a break after he went 0-for-4 in the 5-1 win. He has just one hit over his last four games combined.
The Dodgers are making their own changes for the finale. Their top three spots stay the same against a left-hander, but Timmy Edman moves into the cleanup spot. Kyle Tucker also shifts into the order ahead of Mookie Betts as the former Cub looks to build on the multi-hit performance he had while facing a booing Wrigley crowd.
Miguel Rojas and Hunter Feduccia are also in, at third base and catcher, respectively.
On the mound, the Cubs are riding Shota Imanaga, who has found his All-Star form again after a rough start to 2026. Over his last seven starts, Imanaga has posted a 2.41 ERA and struck out 35 batters. He has also worked at least 6.0 innings in three straight outings, including a 7.0-inning shutout of the Twins on July 19.
He still carries some home-run risk, and that matters against a Dodgers lineup with plenty of punch. But Chicago’s offense has been producing enough to absorb the occasional solo shot, and if Imanaga keeps this run going, the Cubs’ rotation could look a lot more dangerous than expected heading into October.
The Dodgers will try to avoid the sweep with Eric Lauer, who has spent most of the season in the rotation and owns a 4.50 ERA with a 6-5 record. He has allowed three earned runs in three of his last four starts, and the underlying numbers have not helped much either, with a 15.3 percent strikeout rate and a 32.9 percent ground-ball rate.
Lauer’s path is pretty simple: lean on his movement, get weak contact, and hope the ball finds gloves. Some days that works. Some days it doesn’t.
For the Cubs, that leaves plenty of reason to feel good about their chances if Imanaga can keep the Dodgers quiet.
In Other News...
Kevin Alcantara Just Put His Cubs Future Under Real Pressure
Kevin Alcantaras latest trip to Triple-A came right after the trade deadline, when the Cubs needed roster space and turned to newly acquired outfielder Tyrone Taylor to fill the opening. It was a familiar kind of shuffle for a club that has spent all season balancing short-term needs with a longer view, and Alcantara remains part of that bigger picture even after being sent down. He has shown he can handle left-handed pitching, but the right-handed side of the equation is still where the Cubs want more from him.
The pressure now is about timing as much as talent. 2026 is Alcantaras final option year, which means the Cubs will eventually have to decide whether he stays on the major league track or becomes vulnerable to waivers, and the outfield picture could look very different after next season anyway. With multiple jobs potentially opening up, Spring Training and the first half of 2026 may tell the Cubs whether Alcantara is still a prospect to stash or finally a player they have to make room for. [Read more 🡒]
Angels Fans Have One Fair Question About The Ryan Zeferjahn Trade
The Cubs deadline gamble on the bullpen has already started to draw notice, and not just in Chicago. Chicago sent Moises Ballesteros to the Angels to land reliever Ryan Zeferjahn, a move that one NL scout told ESPN was his favorite deal of the MLB trade deadline. It was the kind of swap that made immediate sense for a club trying to stabilize the back end of games without waiting around for a bigger splash.
Zeferjahn has only just begun his run in Cubs blue, with two appearances so far and one earned run allowed in 1.2 innings. Even in such a small sample, the trade has the feel of one that will be judged on whether Chicago can turn a little bullpen help now into something more dependable over the stretch run. [Read more 🡒]
Edward Cabrera Just Gave The Cubs A New Pitching Dilemma
The Cubs have spent enough time this season looking for answers on the mound that a little surplus almost feels unfamiliar. With Clay Holmes and Kevin Gausman added to the starting mix, Chicago has a rotation that suddenly looks deeper than it did not long ago, and Edward Cabreras latest rehab outing only added to the conversation. Working for Triple-A Iowa, Cabrera looked sharp over four innings, and the kind of live arm he showed is exactly what can make a front office rethink its next move.
Now the question is less about whether Cabrera is ready and more about where he fits when he is. Chicago does not have much room to hand out innings casually, and the club will have to decide whether to ease him back into a starters workload or tap into him in shorter bursts if the big-league rotation stays crowded. For a team that just gained some flexibility, Cabreras return may create a fresh kind of problem. [Read more 🡒]