The Cubs head into Thursday’s series finale in Baltimore with the kind of momentum that makes a sweep feel very much on the table. Chicago has won 18 of its last 24, and after taking care of business in the first two games of the set, it gets one more crack at the Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
The finale was originally scheduled for 5:35 p.m. CT, but the Orioles moved the start up to 12:35 p.m. CT after Wednesday’s game because of forecasted inclement weather.
Chicago’s lineup stays mostly intact, with one notable wrinkle: Carson Kelly is in the DH spot and batting cleanup. It’s only the second time this season Kelly has started anywhere other than behind the plate, with the other coming in the Cubs’ 18-3 loss to the San Francisco Giants on June 5. He hasn’t spent much time as a designated hitter this year, but the early returns have been strong - he’s 3-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBI in those chances.
The Cubs’ order for the afternoon looks like this: Pete Crow-Armstrong in center, Alex Bregman at third, Seiya Suzuki in right, Kelly at DH, Michael Busch at first, Nico Hoerner at second, Ian Happ in left, Dansby Swanson at short, and Miguel Amaya behind the plate.
Baltimore counters with a lineup that has struggled through a rough season, largely because the middle of the order hasn’t produced at the level the Orioles needed. Gunnar Henderson has been especially quiet by his standards, hitting .220 with an .690 OPS. Pete Alonso, the offseason addition, remains the biggest threat in the group, with 20 home runs and an .809 OPS.
The mound matchup gives the Cubs another chance to keep the pressure on. David Peterson is looking for a much cleaner outing after a brutal start against the St.
Louis Cardinals last Friday, when he gave up 10 earned runs on nine hits in just 3.2 innings during Chicago’s 17-1 loss. That was easily his worst outing of the season, whether you look at his work with the Cubs or the New York Mets.
Peterson was sharper in his Cubs debut against the Milwaukee Brewers, and the matchup Thursday gives him a favorable path to rebound. Baltimore has been one of the league’s weaker teams against left-handed pitching, ranking in the bottom 10 in batting average at .230, slugging at .369, on-base percentage at .307 and OPS at .675 against southpaws.
Chicago, meanwhile, has punished lefties all season. The Cubs own a .778 OPS against them, second-best in the majors, and their .352 on-base percentage leads MLB.
They’ll see Trevor Rogers, who has quietly been in good form over his last seven starts. The 28-year-old is 4-1 with a 2.38 ERA and 1.01 WHIP in 40.2 innings during that stretch, though he has only 30 strikeouts. Against a Cubs lineup that tends to put the ball in play and work counts, that could matter.
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Cam Smith has given Houston plenty to think about in the months since the Kyle Tucker trade, and the early returns have only sharpened the conversation around his future. The young outfielder has flashed enough this season to make him look like more than just a throw-in from a blockbuster deal, which is why his name is already coming up in bigger-picture roster talk around the Astros.
One MLB executive has even raised the idea of whether Houston should consider extending Smith now, despite the fact that the club does not face an immediate deadline with him. It is the kind of question the Astros have been forced to confront before, especially after their inability to get Jeremy Pena locked into a long-term arrangement, and it puts a spotlight on the balance between buying certainty early and waiting to see how far a promising player can keep climbing. [Read more 🡒]
Cardinals Just Sent The Cubs A Brutal Trade Deadline Warning
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For Chicago, that kind of move is a reminder that the division picture can shift quickly if a rival starts acting like a contender before the deadline even arrives. The Cubs have their own needs to weigh in the coming weeks, but the Cardinals decision adds urgency to the moment, because standing still now could mean watching a familiar opponent get younger, deeper and harder to catch. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Trade Idea Would Fix One Problem By Creating Another
The Mariners search for a right-handed bat has become one of the more obvious pressure points in their lineup, especially with the club sitting near the bottom of the majors in production against left-handed pitching. Rob Refsnyders low OPS before his injury only sharpened the issue, and it is the kind of roster flaw that tends to invite outside ideas, even the speculative kind that bounce around from one trade board to the next.
One Bleacher Report proposal tried to solve that problem by sending a frontline arm to Chicago in a deal built around Seiya Suzuki, a move that would give Seattle the kind of middle-of-the-order help it has lacked. The wrinkle, of course, is that Suzuki holds a full no-trade clause, while the pitcher involved still has time left on his contract and the money lines up closely enough to make the framework at least plausible on paper, even if the fit is far from simple. [Read more 🡒]