The Cubs look to even up their series with the Twins.

Tuesday notes…

• IN AND OUT OF THE BASEMENT: With the Cubs’ loss and the Reds’ win last night, the Cubs fell back into last place in the division. This is the eighth time they have slipped into the cellar. After three of the previous times, they rose to fourth by winning their next game. Three more times, it took them four games to move up to fourth. They were stuck in last until they won in their fifth subsequent game, July 13-21, and until they won their 13th, June 24-July 10. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• PCA, FIGURING IT OUT: Pete Crow-Armstrong, last 10 games since July 27: .333/.353/.546 (11-for-33) with three doubles, two triples and three stolen bases.
• AMAYA, TOO: Miguel Amaya, last 17 games since July 7: .326/.396/.512 (14-for-43) with two doubles, two home runs, five RBI, five runs scored and only eight strikeouts.
• DANSBY FOR THE DEFENSE: Dansby Swanson is second among all MLB shortstops with 14 outs above average (Bobby Witt Jr. leads with 17), and fifth among all players (Baseball Savant).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Twins lineup:

Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Pablo López, RHP

Hopefully, with Shōta Imanaga going tonight, the Cubs can even up this series. Imanaga hasn’t been totally sharp his last two starts, but the Cubs won both of them. In fact, the Cubs are 16-4 in Imanaga’s 20 starts. So I’m pretty confident about this one.

The Twins will be the 19th different team Imanaga has faced in 21 starts. The only teams he’s faced twice are the Mets and Cardinals. That likely gets extended to at least 21 of 23, because after this series his next two starts are probably going to be against AL teams the Cubs have not seen yet.

Pablo López went from the Marlins to the Twins for Luis Arraez before the 2023 season. He had a good year in Minnesota in ‘23, not quite as good this year.

After reaching a season-high 5.63 ERA June 18, though, Lopez has been pretty good over his last seven starts: 2.86 ERA, 0.932 WHIP, .196 opponents BA.

The last time he faced the Cubs was Sept. 20, 2022 in Miami, and I post that boxscore link largely for amusement value. Only two Cubs who played in that game, David Bote and Ian Happ, are currently on the Cubs’ active roster. Bote homered off López that night.

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The 2024 Game Thread procedure will be like last year’s, similar to what we’ve used for Spring Training.

You’ll find the game preview posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game, including the First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread, as well as the recap when it’s published. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at 90 minutes after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.