The Cubs (39-36) won their second consecutive series earlier in the week, taking two of the three from the Rockies at Wrigley Field. It was a real battle, but the offense came through at a couple of key moments to earn the victories. Now the degree of difficulty goes up, with the defending American League champion Blue Jays coming to Chicago for three starting Friday.<\/p>\n
Toronto (37-38) has had a bit of a World Series hangover after getting as close to a title as possible without actually winning it against the Dodgers last October. They have been hovering below .500 for most of the season, but they just completed a sweep of the lousy Red Sox to get within a game of the break-even mark.<\/p>\n
The Jays\u2019 pitching has been pretty decent this season, with a 4.01 team ERA of 4.01 that ranks 13th in baseball. The Cubs will see both of their top starters, Kevin Gausman<\/a> and free-agent addition Dylan Cease,<\/a> who have been excellent so far in 2026.<\/p>\n Toronto\u2019s bullpen has also been effective, with closer Louis Varland<\/a> piling up 14 saves with a dominant 0.90 ERA. Tyler Rogers<\/a> has been outstanding as the primary setup man so far, although the rest of the \u2018pen has been a little bit shakier.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a disappointing season offensively for the Blue Jays with a .705 team OPS that is just 22nd in MLB. Superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/a> has struggled to hit for power with only four home runs. The biggest power threat in 2026 has been third baseman Kazuma Okamoto,<\/a> who has gone deep 15 times in his first MLB season.<\/p>\n The Cubs are still fighting through it, but they are starting to win some games. The offense is showing some signs of life and they will need more of it with injuries continuing to weigh on the pitching staff. If the bats can fully wake up, a hot streak is possible.<\/p>\n Game Time and Broadcast Info<\/p>\n Friday, June 19 at 1:20pm CT on Marquee. Starting Pitchers<\/p>\n What to Watch For<\/p>\n Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> has homers in three consecutive games.
\nSaturday, June 20 at 1:20pm CT on Marquee.
\nSunday, June 21 at 1:20pm CT on Marquee.<\/p>\n
\nMatt Shaw<\/a> has six hits in his last four games, including two triples.
\nWith closer Daniel Palencia<\/a> back on the injured list, the Cubs will probably go with a committee approach to close games.
\nImanaga gave up only one run in two starts against the Rockies after allowing 26 in his previous four outings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs (39-36) won their second consecutive series earlier in the week, taking two of the three from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[35424,35425,35426,48],"class_list":["post-95273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-matt-shaw","tag-pete-crow-armstrong","tag-shota-imanaga","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}