On The Horizon: Cubs vs. Diamondbacks series preview

For the Arizona Diamondbacks, they’re awaiting Opening Day of the 2025 season. There will be ceremonies, players will line up on the baselines to be introduced, etc.

For the Chicago Cubs, it’s Games 3 through 6 of the season. Time to get down to business!

Incidentally, the Cubs are going to wind up doing that “line up on the baseline” thing five times this year. They did it for both games in Tokyo and they’ll do it for the opener at Chase Field. Then they’ll do it again Monday in Sacramento for the A’s home opener, and then a week from Friday at Wrigley Field for their own home opener. By then they should be really good at it!

For more on the D-backs, here’s Jim McLennan, manager of our SB Nation Diamondbacks site AZ Snakepit.

Arizona looks to get back to the post-season, having missed out in 2024 despite outscoring every other team in the majors. The loss of Christian Walker and Joc Pederson will work against a repeat, but the team’s pitching is likely to be better than last year. They won’t have Jordan Montgomery’s 6.23 ERA, as he’ll miss the entire season due to Tommy John surgery. They added the biggest contract in team history in Corbin Burnes, but after a scheduling “situation,” you won’t see him in the opening series. He’s not a bad No. 5 though, and Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt should give the team a very solid rotation. Justin Martinez, recently signed to a long-term extension, anchors the bullpen, but A.J. Puk and Ryan Thompson will provide alternative looks in the late innings.

On offense, Arizona will hope both Corbin Carroll and Eugenio Suarez start the year how they finished 2024, rather than how they began it. Both had terrible starts, but resurrected themselves in the second half. Full season from them at that level will go a long way towards a successful season in the desert. Walker has been replaced at first base by Josh Naylor, who’ll probably offer close to as much thump, though perhaps without the defensive wizardry of Walker, who won the NL 1B Gold Glove the past three seasons. But perhaps nobody is more important to the team than Ketel Marte. Coming off a third-place MVP finish, including career highs in home-runs and RBI, he has a lot to live up to. If he can, then there’s a good chance the D-backs can find themselves back in the post-season come October.

This series could potentially end up being a rehearsal for a playoff match-up. Except if that happens, it will probably involve more Corbin Burnes!

Fun facts

Today will be the earliest date on which the Cubs ever have begun a series in the United States, and the second earliest anywhere, after this year’s two games against the Dodgers at Tokyo.

Their previous earliest date in the U.S. was on March 28, at Texas, in 2019 and 2024. They played on March 29 at Miami in 2018. Their previous earliest in the U.S. against a National League team was on March 30, at home vs. the Brewers, in 2023.

Their previous earliest in the U.S. against an NL team west of Chicago was on April 2, 2017, at St. Louis. They played on April 3 at San Francisco, in 1984, and on April 6 at Arizona, in 2005; at Colorado, in 1999 and 2009; and at San Diego, in 1984.

This will be just the second season in which the Cubs have gone directly from their spring training home in Mesa, Ariz., to playing a series in the Mountain Time Zone. The first was in 2005, when the Cubs also went to Phoenix.

The Cubs have journeyed from Mesa to sites in the Pacific Time Zone in four seasons: 1960, at Los Angeles vs. the Dodgers; 1966 and 1984, at San Francisco; and 2016, at Anaheim vs. the Angels.

The Cubs have a .424 winning percentage at Arizona, having won 39 games and lost 53. That is their lowest percentage on the road against any current National League team. They were .412 at Houston when the Astros were in the NL (145-207). Their next-lowest percentage vs. current NL clubs is .436 vs. the Giants, then .444 vs. the Expos/Nationals.

However, the Cubs are 15-10 at Arizona since 2016, having won seven of the eight series. Overall, they have won 12 series, lost 15 and split three. They have swept only two series: two games in 1998, their first visit to the desert, and three games in 2010. They won the first two games of three other series, then lost the finale, including in 2018 and 2021. The Cubs have been swept in seven series, most recently in three games in 2023.