Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals preview, Tuesday 6/3, 5:45 CT

The Cubs open a series against an NL East ballclub.

Tuesday notes…

• HIT MILESTONE APPROACHING: The Cubs go into tonight’s game having made 536 hits this season. Five more will make them the first Major League team to reach 200,000 in regular-season games since 1876, first year of the National League. The Cubs’ 199,995 hits are 605 more than the Cardinals’ second most of 199,390. The Braves have made 198,072; the Pirates, 197,056; the Giants, 195,525; the Reds, 194,410; the Phillies, 193,404; and the Dodgers, 193,188. The most by a team in the American League, which began play in 1901, is 176,836 by the Red Sox. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• WHAT A RELIEF: ICYMI in this week’s “Three up, three down,” the Cubs bullpen allowed two runs (one earned) during the just-completed homestand, in 19⅔ innings. That’s an ERA of 0.46, and they allowed just seven hits and seven walks (0.712 WHIP) with 17 strikeouts.
• LEADING THE LEAGUE: Seiya Suzuki leads the National League with 18 doubles and 52 RBI. The 18 doubles put him on pace for 49. The last Cub to hit 50 doubles in a season was Derrek Lee (50 in 2005).
• HOME RUNS: The Cubs have four players in double figures in home runs (Pete Crow-Armstrong, 15; Seiya Suzuki, 14; Kyle Tucker, 12; and Dansby Swanson, 11). All could hit 30. The last (and only!) time a Cubs team had four players with 30+ home runs was 2004 (Moises Alou, 39; Aramis Ramirez, 36; Sammy Sosa, 35; and Derrek Lee, 32).

Here are today’s particulars.

Cubs lineup:

Nationals lineup:

Cade Horton, RHP vs. Trevor Williams, RHP

Cade Horton has improved with each successive outing. Last time out, last Tuesday vs. the Rockies, he allowed two runs in six innings, with six strikeouts, which in four MLB appearances is his career high.

He’s obviously never faced the Nationals or anyone on their active roster. Here’s hoping for continued success for Horton.

It has been almost four years since Trevor Williams was the “throw-in” in the deal that sent Javier Báez to the Mets for Pete Crow-Armstrong. I’d say that trade’s worked out pretty well for the Cubs.

Williams, still just 33, wound up in Washington. He had a rough 2023, a decent year in 2024, and has struggled again in 2025, though he did throw six shutout innings in his last outing, last Wednesday vs. the Mariners. He doesn’t throw real hard anymore — as you can see below, his velocity numbers are in Kyle Hendricks territory.

Dansby Swanson is 5-for-17 (.294) with a double and a home run off Williams.

Baseball Savant

Baseball Savant

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. You can find out if Marquee is available via a provider in your area here.

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Nationals site Federal Baseball. If you do go there to interact with Nationals 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 2025 Game Thread procedure will be identical to last year’s.

You’ll find the game preview posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).

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, including the First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread, as well as the recap when it’s published. The recap will also live on the front page as a separate post.

You will also be able to find the preview, First Pitch Thread and the overflow thread in the box marked “Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.

The First Pitch thread will post at five minutes before game time, then an overflow thread at 90 minutes after the scheduled game time.

Discuss amongst yourselves.