Chicago Cubs Lineup (5/27/26): Same Lineup as Yesterday, Taillon Tossing
The Cubs have scored in only 7 of their last 72 innings and they’ve been outscored 65-25 during their 10-game losing streak. For those who don’t have access to a calculator, that comes down to an average margin of four runs per game. They’ve been outscored 88-40 in the 16 games since their most recent 10-game winning streak was snapped, and that includes consecutive wins that saw them put up 12 combined runs.
And if you think that’s bad, just imagine how much worse they’d be if they let Kevin Alcántara face righty starters. Wait, do you mean things can’t be worse than losing every game? Oh, to be a ball-knower.
As the Cubs look to finally get back in the win column, they turn to a former Pirate who has taken two of the losses in this skid. Three, if you count his start in Arlington that snapped the hot streak, but that wasn’t Jameson Taillon‘s fault. The last two haven’t gone quite as well, with a total of 12 earned runs allowed on 16 hits. Six of those hits were round-trippers, and Taillon struck out seven with two walks over 9.2 innings.
Suffice to say, he needs to be a whole helluva lot better tonight. It might also be a good idea for the offense to muster more than one run, something they’ve done only twice in the last six games. The Cubs haven’t scored more than five since May 17 against the White Sox, so maybe they’ll explode this evening.
Since tonight’s lineup is the same as yesterday’s, I’m going to dispense with making the effort to type it out.
They’re up against 23-year-old Bubba Chandler, who’s got kind of a Paul Skenes thing going with the big fastball and the mustache. The rookie has a little ways to go when it comes to his control, though, as he’s walked 34 batters in 47 innings so far. Of course, he’s coming off an outing that saw him strike out 11 Blue Jays with just three walks over five innings.
Barring an unusually efficient performance tonight, that’s about as deep as Chandler should be expected to go as the Pirates look to limit his mileage a bit. That could be the biggest mark in the Cubs’ favor tonight, as they’ve maintained a patient collective plate approach throughout this skid. If Chandler keeps spraying the ball all over the place, the visitors might mess around and score more than one run.
For all the hype surrounding his 98-99 mph fastball, Chandler’s best pitch has been the 92 mph power change he throws about 20% of the time. It’s more of a weapon against left-handed hitters, but he’s still pitched to pretty even splits because that riding heater is still going to work from that steep arm slot. His biggest problem is that he’s still so raw, and he ends up having to challenge with strikes after falling behind in counts.
Lefties are slugging .478 with five of the seven homers he’s allowed, making the walks hurt much more. This is one of those games that I could just as easily see going completely sideways for either team. I think we’ll know quickly which direction it’ll be, as the Cubs will either jump on Chandler or he’ll dominate them from the start.
First pitch is once again at 5:40pm CT on Marquee and The Score.
