Chicago Cubs Lineup (7/25/25): Busch Leads Off, Bruján at 3B, Imanaga Starting
Have you ever had one of those days where you woke up feeling decent and suddenly descended into awfulness? I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say it wasn’t a very fun morning and my brain is about as sluggish as my body right now. Man, am I glad our other writers had stuff in the hopper.
You’d normally look at a series against the White Sox as a way to pick up a few easy wins, but they’ve taken five of six coming out of the break by scoring at least seven runs in each win. They’re outscoring their opponents 49-23 overall in the second half and are sending their de facto ace to the mound this evening, so perhaps this won’t be a walk in the park.
It helps that Shōta Imanaga is on the bump for the visitors looking for his third straight win and fifth in his last six starts. After some early struggles with control, the lefty has dialed things in with just five walks in seven starts. If he can keep that up against a Sox team that typically struggles to score runs, the Cubs will be in a good spot tonight. Of course, they need to put up a few tallies of their own.
Craig Counsell is going with the lineup that’s become more familiar, which in this case includes benching one of his hottest hitters. Michael Busch leads off at first, Kyle Tucker is in right, Seiya Suzuki is the DH, and Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center. Ian Happ plays left, Dansby Swanson is at short, Nico Hoerner takes second, Reese McGuire is behind the plate, and Vidal Bruján is at third.
Going for the South Siders is familiar foe Adrian Houser, who has done quite a bit of bouncing around since his days in Milwaukee. He was traded to the Mets in December of 2023, but was released on July 31 of the following season. That’s when the Cubs picked him up on a minors deal, giving him four starts at Iowa before releasing him at the end of August. He then pitched briefly in the Orioles organization before electing free agency and doing a minors deal with the Rangers.
Following an uninspiring run at Triple-A Round Rock, Houser — who is no relation to Cole Hauser, by the way — was released. He joined the White Sox with a fast pass to skip the minors entirely and has posted a 1.89 ERA over 62 innings across 10 starts. He’s done it by limiting walks and allowing only two homers despite giving up a lot of hard contact.
Houser doesn’t miss many bats, either, but his 4.3% barrel rate puts him in MLB’s 94th percentile. The long-limbed righty gets good extension, making his 94 mph sinker and 95 mph four-seam play up a little bit. Both of those pitches run in on right-handed hitters, hence the lack of barrels. He throws the sinker about 45% of the time and will use it against hitters on both sides of the plate, but the four-seam makes up only 14% of his pitches and is mainly a weapon against lefties.
The changeup and curve are used more heavily against lefties as well, though he’s willing to throw everything to everyone depending on circumstances. It’s interesting to see that his velo is way up on all of his pitches, including a jump on the slider from 83.2 to 86.8 mph from last season. Houser has been really tough on right-handed hitters, though lefties are slashing .282/.352/.445 with both of the homers he’s surrendered so far. His splits are far better at home, though.
Even with all the apparent room for regression, this guy has been around for a while and keeps getting better results than the peripherals indicate he should. This might be a game the Cubs have to win with small ball, so look for them to be aggressive on the bases when they reach.
First pitch is at 6:40pm CT on Marquee and 670 The Score.
Start of three on the South Side.
Watch game one tonight on the Marquee Sports Network App. pic.twitter.com/84Gid46wOJ
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) July 25, 2025
