ICYMI, Pete Crow-Armstrong was named NL Player of the Week.
There’s a fair chance of rain interrupting or delaying tonight’s game (forecast link below). Here’s a link to the New York-area radar.
Monday notes…
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GOTTA GET OFF THIS SCHNEID: The Cubs are 0-5 in first games of series after having lost the final game of the previous series. They are 0-4 on the road on Mondays. Three losses met both criteria: by 6-4 at Tampa on April 6, by 9-7 at San Diego on April 27 and by 2-1 at Pittsburgh on May 25. The loss to the Pirates was the only one that followed a series-ending loss at home, as happened Saturday. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
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RUN SCORING, PART 1: The Cubs have scored 30 runs in their last three games: eight, 16 and six. That is the second most they have scored in a span of three games this season, behind 33, April 14-17: 10, 11 and 12. The first two were wins at Philadelphia; the third, a win at home vs. the Mets. Their third most in games not overlapping any in the spans in which they scored 33 and 30 were just 22, three times: April 21-23, May 6-8 and May 27-29. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
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RUN SCORING, PART 2: The Cubs have scored at least six runs in three consecutive games. They had not done that since May 6-8, in their 37th-39th games, the last three of their second 10-game winning streak: 7-6 and 8-3 at home vs. the Reds, then 7-1 at Texas. They had a four-game streak, April 21-24, and a five-game streak, April 12-17. They lost one of the five. They won all of the four. Last season, the Cubs had two streaks of three games, two of four and one of five. Only one of the streaks, of three games, came after May 20. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
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TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: Brant Brown’s two-run homer capped a three-run 16th (!) inning as the Cubs defeated the Padres 9-6 in San Diego. It was Brown’s eighth MLB game and he went 5-for-9 in the win. It happened 30 years ago today, Saturday, June 22, 1996.
Cubs lineup:
Mets lineup:
Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Kodai Senga, RHP
Today, we have a matchup of Japanese pitchers, both of whom pitched several seasons in NPB.
Shōta Imanaga’s tale of three seasons in one:
Phase 1, first nine starts: 54.1 IP, 2.32 ERA, 0.906 WHIP, 2.82 FIP, five HR
Phase 2: next four starts: 21.2 IP, 10.80 ERA, 1.521 WHIP, 10.16 FIP, 12 HR
Phase 3: next two starts: 10.2 IP, 0.84 ERA, 0.938 WHIP, 2.06 FIP, no HR
So which is the real Imanaga? Yes, the last two starts were against the awful Rockies, but Colorado does have some decent hitters and Shōta got out of Coors Field without allowing a home run.
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So, ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
Imanaga’s last start vs. the Mets was Sept. 25, 2025 at Wrigley Field and trust me, you do not want to look at that boxscore link. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Imanaga has pitched against the Mets three times and one of those three was a seven-inning scoreless outing at Citi Field in 2024. Given his career ERA of 10.34 in those three starts, you can guess how awful the other one was.
Hopefully, Imanaga will channel that 2024 start tonight.
Kodai Senga came to the Mets from NPB in 2023 and had a really good year, posting 4.5 bWAR and finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting and seventh in Cy Young balloting.
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Then he got hurt and made only one start in 2024. Last year he came back and had another good year, 2.3 bWAR in 22 starts.
Then he got hurt again. He’s made six starts this year. The first two were decent, since then — yikes. Four starts (and an IL stint in between) in which he posted a 14.59 (!) ERA, 2.514 WHIP and issued 12 walks in 12.1 innings and allowed seven (!) home runs in that span. He didn’t get past the fourth inning in any of those starts.
Senga made two starts against the Cubs in 2023 and posted a 4.09 ERA and 1.818 WHIP in 11 innings. No current Cub has more than seven at-bats against him, and that’s Nico Hoerner (2-for-7, a home run).
Here is the weather forecast for the area around Citi Field.
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Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. It’s also streaming on Peacock (Mets broadcast, outside the Cubs and Mets market territories).
Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Mets site Amazin’ Avenue. If you do go there to interact with Mes fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.
The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.
You’ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).
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At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game.
The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.
You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
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