The Cubs begin the season’s second half against an AL East club.
From today through Aug. 6 — that’s a total of 19 days in which they’ll play 18 games — the Cubs will not have to get on their usual chartered plane.
In that span they will play 12 games at Wrigley Field, three on the South Side of Chicago and three in Milwaukee, and for the latter series they’ll take a bus ride.
So right now would be a great time for the Cubs to start putting distance between themselves and the rest of the NL Central, starting with this three-game set against the Boston Red Sox.
For more on the Red Sox, here’s Mike Carlucci, a writer for our SB Nation Red Sox site Over The Monster.
The Boston Red Sox come to Chicago in a good position: A 53-45 (.541 winning percentage) record, good for third place in the AL East, trailing the Toronto Blue Jays by just three games. They sit in the second American League Wild Card spot. The team ended the unofficial “first half” on a 10-game winning streak, the best in baseball.
2025 has been a season of many ups and downs: a March/April of 17-15 followed by and 11-17 May, a 14-12 June (9-4 before The Trade and 6-8 after), and then an 11-1 start to July.
And, oh yeah, they traded their best player, longest tenured player, largest contract player, and face of the franchise. These were all Rafael Devers.
Plus big-ticket offseason addition Alex Bregman was hurt in May and missed all of June and all but 2 games so far in July.
What changed? Ceddanne Rafaela aka Nuf Cedd has hit .329/.359/.658 since bottoming out at a .602 OPS on May 26th. He’s had a few big walkoffs too: in June against the Angels and in July against the Tampa Bay Rays,
Removing literally his first week in the majors and Roman Anthony has hit .306/.416/.435.
Carlos Narváez has been a revelation at catcher.
And the pitching. The starting pitching, anchored by Garrett Crochet, has turned a corner starting in June.
Friday’s starter, Lucas Giolito, enters with a 3.36 ERA / 3.62 FIP. He’s coming of six starts of at least six innings and all but one of those has been a quality start allowing two runs or less.
Brayan Bello on Saturday has recently altered his mechanics and pitch selection. With a 3.27 ERA / 4.21 FIP he has tossed at least six innings in seven of his last eight outings.
Sunday concludes with All-Star Garrett Crochet. He’s coming off his first-ever complete game shutout — that’s two firsts in one.
That Alex Bregman guy, he’s off the IL. And player after player after player has said he’s been like another coach helping them figure out swings or improve their preparation routine so that coaching helps more. It’s all intangibles but hey, if Anthony and Rafaela think it’s helping who are any of us to argue?
If the Red Sox hit a home run, they celebrate by wearing a helmet that looks like the head of their mascot: Wally the Green Monster, as you can see in the photo at the top of this series preview. It was apparently the brainchild of Jarren Duran and Wally graciously delivered.
Fun facts
Before the break for the All-Star Game, the Cubs played three games at New York against the Yankees. Now they will start the “second half” (games 98-162) with three games at home vs. the Red Sox.
They had the same schedule just two years ago, when they won two of three in the Bronx, then lost two of three high-scoring games at home to the Sox: an 8-3 loss, a 10-4 win and an 11-5 loss.
Last year, the Cubs played at Boston, April 26-28, then hosted the Yankees, Sept. 6-8.
The Cubs are 12-12 vs. the Red Sox: 6-6 both at home and on the road. They took two of three at home in 2005 and 2022, and lost two of three in 2012 and last year.
…..
The Cubs went 5-1 on their last homestand, sweeping the Guardians and winning two of three against the Cardinals.
That was the third time this season they have gone 5-1 between road trips. The first was May 12-18; the second, May 26-June 1.
They had a total of five 5-1 homestands in the previous 10 seasons: one in 2019, two in 2021 and one each in 2023 and 2024. In two of them they won the first five games and lost the sixth.
The Cubs swept all six games in their final homestand of 2022. They had a 5-0 homestand in 2020, started 5-1 and won a seventh game in 2019, and started 6-0 and lost a seventh game in 2018.
The Cubs had no 5-1 homestands in 2015-17. Their schedule in those years had more longer home stands than in subsequent seasons and rainouts reduced others to fewer than six games. They played six games in three homestands apiece in 2015 and 2016, and in only two in 2017.
(Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
Probable pitching matchups
Friday: Colin Rea, RHP (7-3, 3.91 ERA, 1.261 WHIP, 4.78 FIP) vs. Lucas Giolito, RHP (6-1, 3.36 ERA, 1.230 WHIP, 3.63 FIP)
Saturday: Shōta Imanaga, LHP (6-3, 2.65 ERA, 0.926 WHIP, 4.52 FIP) vs. Brayan Bello, RHP (6-3, 3.14 ERA, 1.276 WHIP, 4.21 FIP)
Sunday: TBD vs. Garrett Crochet, LHP (10-4, 2.23 ERA, 1.036 WHIP, 2.41 FIP)
At this writing, I’d expect “TBD” to be either Chris Flexen or a bullpen game. (Or both!) As always, we await developments.
Times & TV channels
Friday: 1:20 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network, MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Red Sox market territories)
Saturday: 6:15 p.m. CT, Fox-TV (regional — coverage map)
Sunday: 1:20 p.m. CT, Marquee Sports Network
Prediction
Hey, look! Two former White Sox pitchers are facing the Cubs this weekend. Both have thrown at Wrigley Field previously, though Crochet’s appearance was one relief inning back in 2021. You know the Cubs’ record vs. left-handed starters this year, and so… that game, perhaps we can write off.
It should be noted that of the 10 wins in Boston’s current winning streak, six were against the woeful Nationals and Rockies. But they did also sweep a pretty good Rays team in a four-game set, though those games were a lot closer than the previous six — three of the four wins were by one run.
The Cubs will take two of three to begin the post-All-Star baseball schedule.
The Cubs are,
Up next
The Cubs host the Kansas City Royals in a three-game series at Wrigley Field beginning Monday evening.