The Chicago Cubs are looking for a sweep of their three-game series with the Miami Marlins as they prepare for Sunday’s finale at 12:40 p.m. central at loanDepot park in Miami.
The Cubs (65-65) are probably out of the playoff race at this point, as they are 5.5 games behind the final wild-card berth in the National League. But lately, they've made things exciting. Chicago is coming off an absolute drubbing of the Marlins (46-83) on Saturday, 14-2, and has now won six of their last eight games since a trip to Toronto last weekend.
The Cubs are now at .500 for the first time since June 5. That’s little comfort for an organization that had higher expectations for itself going into this season.
Chicago is set to start right-hander Javier Assad, who enters the game with a 6-3 record and a 3.11 ERA in 23 starts. He has struck out 99 and walked 50 in 113 innings. He set a career-high for innings pitched earlier this week.
In his last start on Tuesday, he took the victory as he went 5.2 innings and allowed one earned run and six hits. He struck out seven and walked one. He's also 2-0 in his last seven starts with a 3.30 ERA.
The Marlins will counter with right-hander Adam Oller, who is set to make his second start of the season after making his debut on Monday.
The 29-year-old veteran took the loss, giving up five earned runs in 4.2 innings. He only allowed three hits, but he walked four and struck out two. He previously pitched for the Oakland Athletics in 2022-23.
The Marlins signed him to a minor league contract in July after Cleveland released him from their Triple-A affiliate in Columbus.
Offense has at times been a problem for Chicago this season, but that wasn't the case on Saturday. Seiya Suzuki hit two home runs and hit an RBI triple for the Cubs, while rookie Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a home run for the second straight game.
Crow-Armstrong hit an inside the park home run on Friday and he followed that with a second deck home run in Saturday’s win.
Shota Imanaga allowed two runs on four hits in seven innings to take the win for Chicago. In doing so, the team did something that had never been done before, per OptaStats.
The Cubs became the first MLB team to have one Japanese-born player hit three-plus extra-base hits and another Japanese-born player earn the win in the same game.
The Cubs continue their road trip at Pittsburgh on Monday.
