{"id":252018,"date":"2026-07-25T20:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T20:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/252018\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T20:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T20:50:14","slug":"chicago-cubs-vs-pittsburgh-pirates-preview-saturday-7-25-540-ct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/252018\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs vs. Pittsburgh Pirates preview, Saturday 7\/25, 5:40 CT"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILESTONE INCOMIMG: A win today will be the Cubs\u2019 600th at Pittsburgh since the rivalry with the Pirates began in 1887, when \u201cAllegheny City\u201d jumped to the National League after five seasons in the rival American Association. The Cubs have won more games at Pittsburgh than at any other city. Philadelphia is second, with 579. The Cubs have lost more games at Pittsburgh, 714, than anywhere else. St. Louis is second, with 677. (Courtesy BCB\u2019s JohnW53)DEFEATING THE WINNERS: Last night\u2019s game was the Cubs\u2019 first in 13 against an opponent that took a winning record into the game. They had gone 7-5 in the 12 vs. teams at .500 or below. Based on current records, the Cubs\u2019 next 12 games all could be against clubs with more wins than losses. The Cubs are 25-21 against such teams and 33-24 vs. all others. (Courtesy BCB\u2019s JohnW53)DIVISION RIVALS: Last night\u2019s win raised the Cubs\u2019 record against their Central Division rivals above .500, at 14-13. The Pirates are 17-13 within the division; the Brewers, 19-10; and the Cardinals, 15-14. The Reds are 7-22. (Courtesy BCB\u2019s JohnW53)TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: The Cubs pounded out 19 hits, including a home run and four RBI from Augie Galan, and crushed the Phillies 17-4<\/a> in Philadelphia. They led the NL by three games. It happened 90 years ago today, Saturday, July 25, 1936.<\/p>\n

Neither team\u2019s lineup was available at posting time. Please check BCB social media for the lineups.<\/p>\n

Sh\u014dta Imanaga, LHP vs. Paul Skenes, RHP<\/p>\n

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Sh\u014dta Imanaga continued his good stretch of starts his last time out with seven shutout innings against the Twins last Sunday at Wrigley Field. Over his last seven: 2.31 ERA, 1.179 WHIP, only five home runs in 39 innings.<\/p>\n

Imanaga threw six no-hit innings against the Pirates April 10 at Wrigley Field<\/a>. In fact, the Pirates are the team against whom he\u2019s had his most success: Five starts, 32 innings, 0.28 (!) ERA (one earned run), seven walks, 32 strikeouts. And he will need that because his opponent is\u2026<\/p>\n

Paul Skenes, who\u2019s done very well against the Cubs in his career \u2014 2.77 ERA, 53 strikeouts in 39 innings.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Skenes, though, is not like the last couple of years. After getting off to a great start, Skenes has a 4.55 ERA and 1.347 WHIP over his last 12 starts covering 65.1 innings. He\u2019s still striking out guys \u2014 82 in those 12 starts \u2014 but teams are finding ways to score.<\/p>\n

One of those starts was May 28 at PNC Park<\/a>. The Cubs scored three runs (one earned) off him in 5.1 innings, really running up his pitch count (103). That seems to be a way to beat him, so do it again.<\/p>\n

Also, his four-seamer velocity is down a bit this year. As you see in the chart below, it\u2019s at 96.9 this year \u2014 last year it was at 98.2. That might be enough to make the difference.<\/p>\n

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Here is the weather forecast for the area around PNC Park.<\/a><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s game is on Marquee Sports Network.<\/p>\n

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.<\/a><\/p>\n

Baseball-reference.com game preview<\/a><\/p>\n

Please visit our SB Nation Pirates site Bucs Dugout<\/a>. If you do go there to interact with Pirates 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.<\/p>\n

The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).<\/p>\n

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled \u201cCubs vs. (Team) (Day of week\/date) game threads.\u201d It will contain every post related to that particular game.<\/p>\n

The Live! (formerly \u201cFirst Pitch\u201d) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.<\/p>\n

You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in this section link<\/a>. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.<\/p>\n

Discuss amongst yourselves.<\/p>\n

Fewer adsCreate community posts<\/a>Comment on articles, community postsRec comments, community postsNew, improved notifications system!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILESTONE INCOMIMG: A win today will be the Cubs\u2019 600th at Pittsburgh since the rivalry with the Pirates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74015,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-252018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-chicago-cubs-game-information","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}