AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

The Rundown: Cubs Must Ace September Schedule, Tucker Considered Hitting Savant, White Sox Playing Respectable Baseball

Photo of Michael Canter Michael CanterAugust 26, 2025

“He’s dreaming that someday he’d be a star. But he sure found out the hard way that dreams don’t always come true.” – Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Knight & the Pips

Six games jump out at me when looking at the Cubs’ remaining schedule, and all are against the Braves. Chicago starts its next homestand with a three-game set against Atlanta on Labor Day. The tentative pitching matchups are Hurston Waldrep vs. Colin Rea, Joey Wentz vs. Shōta Imanaga, and Cal Quantrill vs. Cade Horton. The Cubs should be favored in each of those games, but the Braves, despite being the National League’s fourth-worst team, still scare me. They seem a lot better on paper than their 59-72 record indicates.

The two teams will meet one week later for a three-game set in Atlanta, and the Cubs should once again miss co-aces Chris Sale and Spencer Strider unless the Braves lose a game to postponement. Then again, manager Brian Snitker might feel like playing spoiler, so he could use Atlanta’s two off days to juggle his rotation. The Braves were 89-73 last year and lost in the Wild Card round to the Padres. They’re the only team the Cubs have yet to play this season, and their lineup is just as strong as it was in 2024. Atlanta’s rotation has always been its calling card, so potentially bypassing Sale and Strider is a huge pre-match win.

That said, I get uneasy thinking about non-divisional games in the heat of a pennant race. Though the Cubs were 4-2 against the Braves last year, I can’t stop reliving those September games against the Diamondbacks in 2023. Chicago, led by David Ross, improbably dropped all six of the games to Arizona that month. The Cubs missed the playoffs by one game while the Diamondbacks grabbed the final seed and eventually won the NLCS before losing to the Rangers in the World Series. Ross was replaced by Craig Counsell a few months later.

Counsell, who may or may not be on the hot seat, needs to navigate September the way he did as the Brewers’ manager. Milwaukee won 100 of 162 (.617) September games between 2018 and 2023, Counsell’s last with the team. The Cubs were 79-82 (.490) under Ross and Joe Maddon during that span. That is why Milwaukee has been kicking Chicago’s ass since Jed Hoyer took over for Theo Epstein. Those games against the Braves will determine if the Cubs can slingshot past the Brewers or not.

Cubs News & Notes

Ball Four

The Magic 8-Ball says: Deep enough to lose 3.5 games in the standings to the Cubs in the last week.

Central Intelligence

Wild Pitch

“You can live it up, live it up all over the town.” – Wild Wild West by Escape Club

How About That!

Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh hit his 50th homer last night. You can’t stop the Big Dumper, you can only hope to contain him.

The White Sox are a respectable 16-18 since the All-Star break and are defying preseason projections for another 100-loss season. They need 15 more wins in 31 games to avoid that fate.

Matt Snyder of CBS Sports wants MLB to bring back tiebreaker games to determine division winners.

For the Padres and Mariners, it doesn’t get any Vedder than this.

A Tennessee man with the same name as legendary ballplayer Babe Ruth has been indicted on charges related to a scheme in which he allegedly used the names of hundreds of dead or retired baseball players to make phony claims in class action lawsuits.

Extra Innings

Brooks Robinson, Graig Nettles, and Shaw. If you filter by DWAR, Shaw (1.1) is second in baseball behind Ke’Bryan Hayes (1.8). The rookie third baseman has eight defensive runs saved, which puts him in a tie for 38th place among all MLB fielders.

Apropos of Nothing

Happy National Dog Day to all who celebrate. Unfortunately, my dogs come on a poppyseed bun with mustard, onion, relish, tomato slices, pickle, sport peppers, and celery salt. Sometimes I add sliced or shaved cucumber, too. “Give me two dogs, walk ’em through the garden, and put some shoes on ’em.”

They Said It

  • “[Tucker] has a [cognitive] Rolodex of pitchers and shapes and speeds that he can almost pull up on command. It’s one of the unique traits that he has that makes him so great.” – Kelly
  • “We would go back to certain pitches that he had hit in ‘21 and ‘22. He has an incredible recall of swings that he’s taken off guys, and what type of pitches. [Tucker would say] ‘This kind of reminded me of the pitch that I hit off Aaron Nola in the World Series.’ We’d go back and watch that very similar pitch and compare the moves.” – Kelly

Tuesday Walk-Up Song

I had a dream last night that the Cubs swept the Brewers in the NLDS, with the first two games played at Wrigley Field. I was at all four games, and oddly, Bo Jackson was playing left field for Milwaukee in the final game. This song was playing after the Cubs advanced to the World Series.

Photo of Michael Canter Michael CanterAugust 26, 2025
Cubs Insider © Copyright 2025, All Rights Reserved