Chicago Cubs Lineup (5/29/26): Conforto DH, Kelly Catching, Imanaga Starting
I’m old enough to remember when we didn’t have to wait until the end of May to get a Cubs/Cardinals series, but such is life with the balanced schedule. After struggling against the Pirates and Brewers (3-7), it sure would be nice for the North Siders to take care of business in St. Louis this weekend. That’s easily possible if they play like they did in the last two games rather than the previous 10.
Winning tonight will require a much, much better effort from Shōta Imanaga, who has allowed 15 earned runs on 16 hits over his last two starts. He struck out just eight batters over 10.1 innings in those contests, and the five homers he surrendered caused quite a bit of damage. He’s done very well against this Cards group in the past, holding them to a .192 average and .519 OPS with only two homers in 52 at-bats.
I’m late getting this up because I had some other stuff get in the way, so I’ll just say that most of the lineup is unchanged. You can check the card below for specifics if needed.
They’re facing 27-year-old righty Andre Pallante, who has one of the most aesthetically displeasing deliveries this side of Brent Suter. It’s as though a T-Rex with long arms decided to learn how to pitch, what with that glove arm pulling so hard and then clearing out way behind him. There are very strong shades of Chris Bassitt in here as well.
As much as I dislike watching Pallante pitch, though, I must applaud him for not letting a coach “fix” him along the way. Way too many kids end up broken because some dude decided to change them just because he didn’t like the way they threw or swung.
A far greater concern is how bad the Cubs have looked for the better part of three weeks, particularly against breaking balls. They’re seeing an historically high percentage of spin in May, which has contributed to their poor results. And while that should balance out moving forward, Pallante’s repertoire could give them some problems.
He throws his four-seam only 31% of the time, but it’s only 10% against right-handed hitters. Righties see mainly slider/sinker, with a healthy dose of curveballs mixed in as well. Lefties get almost 50% heaters with the curve and slider accounting for about 41% of the mix. Pallante’s breaking stuff has a run value of 5, putting him in the 93rd percentile among qualified pitchers.
All that said, these Cubs hitters have destroyed his stuff in the past. Over a combined 59 at-bats, they’re batting .356 with a 1.034 OPS and three homers. Their righty batters have done most of the damage, which is in keeping with Pallante’s career splits, but he’s greatly reduced the number of fastballs he throws them. After being around 50% early in his career, he dropped to around 25% over the last two seasons and is now at 10% four-seams to righties.
That has him pitching to more traditional splits, and he’s maintained a high groundball rate as well. Pallante’s fastball sits around 95 mph and the breaking balls are strong, but he doesn’t produce a lot of chase, whiffs, or strikeouts. Nor does he serve up many taters, with no more than one homer against him in any of his 10 previous starts this season. Getting to him is more about catching a few barrels and playing more station-to-station ball, which hasn’t been a Cubs strength of late.
They sure were able to make things happen over their last two games in Pittsburgh, however, and I think they’ll come through again tonight. First pitch is at 6:15pm CT on Marquee and The Score.
Location update.
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— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 29, 2026
