Chicago Cubs Lineup (4/13/26): Kelly at 1B, Suzuki DH, Assad Starting

Things were looking really bleak for the Cubs through the first few innings of Sunday’s game, but they managed to fend off a sweep before heading out to Philly. The Phillies haven’t been playing up to expectations either, and they dropped two of three to both the Giants and Diamondbacks to fall a game under .500 pending tonight’s result. Their pitching and hitting have been equally mediocre to this point, but we all know they could wake up at any moment.

It’ll be up to Javier Assad to keep them sleeping with a bedtime story like the one he told the Rays last week. In his first start since being called back up from Iowa, the righty pitched nearly six shutout innings with just one hit and two walks allowed. Though he hasn’t put up outstanding numbers against this Phils lineup, he’s limited them to just one homer in 34 at-bats.

Just in case, the Cubs’ bats had better pick up where they left off yesterday afternoon. They’ll do so with another wrinkle to the lineup, as Michael Busch is once again on the bench with a tough lefty on the mound. Nico Hoerner will lead off at second, Alex Bregman is at third, and Seiya Suzuki will DH to give his knee a break. Ian Happ cleans up in left, Carson Kelly gets his first career start and third overall appearance at first base, and Dansby Swanson will try to put his superb baserunning to work again as the shortstop. Miguel Amaya is behind the plate, Pete Crow-Armstrong is in center, and Matt Shaw patrols right.

Going for the home team is 29-year-old lefty Christopher Sánchez, who has allowed only three earned runs through as many starts this season. His 1.65 ERA is more than six-tenths higher than his 1.06 FIP, telling us he may actually be the victim of some subpar defense. Then again, he gave up 11 hits his last time out and walked four in his second start. The walks may have been just an aberration, though, as Sánchez has always been a strike-thrower.

He also gets tons of grounders from the sinker/change combo that makes up around 80% of his pitches. He’ll mix in a bullet slider that has death-ball-adjacent properties with a little more depth, but he’s had a tendency to pull it out of the zone over his first three appearances. The 86 mph changeup is really the pitch to worry about, especially to right-handed hitters.

Sánchez gets a lot of depth on it and tunnels it well with his 95 mph sinker to get hitters to swing over the top or beat it into the ground. He works down in the zone more than any starter the Cubs have seen this year, making him something of a throwback. Many pitchers stopped working low a few years back, fearing that hitters’ greater adherence to creating steeper launch angles would allow them to scoop pitches in the lower third for big hits.

That doesn’t seem to be the case for Sánchez, who has allowed only 23 homers in 66 starts since the beginning of the 2024 season. He has given up 353 hits in just under 384 innings in that time, however, so opponents have not had much trouble putting the ball in play. Sure enough, the Cubs are batting .280 in 25 ABs against Sánchez, but that’s from two homers and five singles. Happ homered against him on July 4, 2024, and Hoerner tagged him on September 25 of that same season.

Sánchez has typically been much better against left-handed hitters, a trend that is very pronounced in this year’s small sample. He’s also been much, much better at home, but Citizens Bank Park has played a little more hitter-friendly at this juncture in 2026 than it has over the last few seasons. I wonder if that has anything to do with adding a huge dome in the form of Adolis García. The Cubs might want to take advantage of that early rather than having to claw their way back from a deficit yet again.

First pitch is at 5:40pm CT on Marquee and The Score.

New city, new series.

Watch the game live on @WatchMarquee. pic.twitter.com/Ta6Hla2eX9

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 13, 2026