Chicago Cubs Lineup (4/26/25): Turner Batting Cleanup, Berti at 3B, Brown Starting
The Cubs have yet to drop a home series opener this season, and now they are in position to take the series against a team expected to compete for the NL pennant. The Phillies haven’t been playing well after getting out to a hot start, but they have a lineup that can make a lot of noise. That includes several familiar faces, either former Cubs or Cubs targets, which makes this like playing the Dodgers in a weird way.
Ben Brown is now tasked with keeping that lineup in check, something Colin Rea was able to do yesterday with a lot of help from the heavy winds. Brown has looked great over his last two starts, even if his most recent outing wasn’t too efficient. He needed 100 pitches to get through just four innings, mainly due to four walks and several other deep counts.
He’s tightened up the curveball since struggling out of the gate, getting it back into the “death ball range,” but his fastball velocity remains right around 95 mph. The curve is a put-away pitch for him when it’s right, which it has been lately. I’d still like to see him trust the changeup a little more and bump its usage up to more than 2-3 pitches per game.
Brown has the best offense in baseball to help him, led off by Ian Happ in left field. Seiya Suzuki is the DH, Kyle Tucker is in right, and Justin Turner is batting cleanup at first base. Craig Counsell said doesn’t believe the order is very important when asked on Friday about whether the hot-hitting Pete Crow-Armstrong — whose new stance is driving his results — will be moved up, but his usage of Turner contradicts that. If the order isn’t important, Turner and his 44 wRC+ should be in the nine-hole with everyone else moving up.
I appreciate what the cagey veteran brings to the clubhouse, but he can’t be batting third or fourth like he has done nine times now (not counting pinch-hit appearances). Not to mention he’s only 1-for-10 with a pair of strikeouts against today’s starter. I just don’t get it. Anyway, Dansby Swanson is at short, Nico Hoerner is at second, and Crow-Armstrong is in center. Miguel Amaya does the catching and Jon Berti is at third.
They’re up against Jesús Luzardo, who would have been a Cub had the team not balked at his medicals. That was something theorized by Bruce Levine and others back in December, and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic confirmed it in a Friday report. The lefty must have healed himself because he’s looking better than ever after the Phillies saw fit to take a bit of a risk by acquiring him. Through 30.1 innings over five starts, Luzardo has 36 strikeouts with just seven walks and has given up just one homer.
His running four-seam fastball is back over 96 mph after being down around 95 last season, and his breaking balls have been superb. Luzardo throws both a gyro and a sweeper, both of which hug the horizontal line on Baseball Savant’s movement profile chart. And since they’re thrown with almost the exact same velocity (86-86.5 mph), the variation in break makes it very difficult for hitters to discern which one they’re getting.
The slider is a very tight offering with death ball qualities, sitting right in the center of the movement plot. The sweeper is a new pitch for him and it has elevated his profile a great degree after having gotten relatively poor results with his slider alone in the past. The changeup has been very inconsistent, see-sawing from good to bad each season. So far, the offspeed has been worse than ever.
Traditionally a mild platoon-split pitcher, Luzardo has been much more neutral this season. The difference is that right-handed hitters get a much better look at that sweeper and end up drawing more walks. In fact, he hasn’t issued a free pass to any of the 30 left-handed batters he’s faced on the season. Though he’s been prone to giving up homers in the past, that hasn’t been the case with the Phillies.
We aren’t likely to see many dingers in this one, what with temps in the upper 40s and feeling like the low 40s. Things could shift by gametime, but it looks like one of those days when winds of around 15 mph should be blowing in and killing fly balls.
First pitch is at 3:05pm CT on FOX and 670 The Score.
Saturday Matinee at @ofcwrigleyfield. pic.twitter.com/VgSgFMlOse
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 26, 2025
