Chicago Cubs vs. New York Mets preview, Thursday 9/25, 6:40 CT

Thursday notes…

• SPLITTING THE DIFFERENCE: This is the 30th of the Cubs’ 52 series in which they have split the first two games. There was no third game in one series. The Cubs won the third game in 16 series and lost it in 12. They are 8-9 after having lost, then won, including wins in their last three such games. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• ZERO DARK THURSDAY: Tonight’s game is just the Cubs’ third Thursday game of the season under the lights at Wrigley Field. They won both earlier ones, 3-2 over the Pirates on June 12 and 1-0 in 10 innings over the Guardians on July 3, on Matt Shaw’s walk-off sacrifice fly. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• NINETY: A win tonight will make this the 27th season in which the Cubs have won at least 90 games, about one of every five of all 125 seasons since 1876, first of the National League. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)
• MAGIC NUMBER: The Cubs’ magic number to clinch home field in the Wild Card series against the Padres was reduced to 2 with the Cubs’ win and Padres’ loss Wednesday. Thus the Cubs need to simply win two of their four remaining regular season games in order to open that series Tuesday at Wrigley Field.

Cubs lineup:

Mets lineup:

Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Nolan McLean, RHP

Shōta Imanaga’s troubles are well-known, and they are spelled H-O-M-E R-U-N. He’s allowed 29 of them, which is two more than last year — in 33.2 fewer innings. Twelve of those homers have come in his last seven starts in just 43 innings.

To his credit, Shōta said after his last start that he understands this is an issue and he will do what he can to work on it. Let’s hope so.

Imanaga was on the IL when the Cubs faced the Mets in May, so he has not faced them this year. He faced them twice last year, once at Wrigley and once in New York. The NY start was good, the Wrigley outing was frighteningly bad. Nope, not even giving you a boxscore link. If you really want to know, you can look it up.

We hope for better tonight.

Like last night’s Mets starter Jonah Tong, Nolan McLean started 2025 in Double-A. He blew through five starts there with a 1.37 ERA, then was promoted to Triple-A, where he posted a 2.78 ERA in 16 games (13 starts). Overall in the minors this year: 127 strikeouts in 113.1 innings.

And, like Tong, McLean was promoted to the Mets due to injuries in their rotation. Unlike Tong, McLean has thrown really well in the big leagues: seven starts, 1.27 ERA, 46 strikeouts in 42.2 innings. He’s never faced the Cubs or anyone on their active roster. As you can see from the chart below, he relies a lot on offspeed stuff. Let’s hope the Cubs can square up on that.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network. You can find out if Marquee is available via a provider in your area here. It’s also on MLB Network (outside the Cubs and Mets market territories).

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

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Mets site Amazin’ Avenue. If you do go there to interact with Mets 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.