If it feels like these two teams have played each other a lot so far this season for non-division foes, it’s because they have. After opening the MLB regular season in Tokyo with a two-game set, the Cubs traveled to Los Angeles for a three-game series a couple weeks back. Now, the two squads will finish off their matchups for the season with another two-game set at Wrigley.

Still, this might not be the last we see of these two historic franchises squaring off in 2025. Both the Dodgers and the Cubs currently lead their divisions, so a meeting in the postseason could be on the horizon.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though. Let’s focus on tonight’s tilt in Chicago.

This should be a good one. With Shohei Ohtani returning from the paternity list on Sunday, both of these lineups will be operating at 100% for a big clash of division leaders. Through almost a month, it has been the Cubs, not the Dodgers, who have been MLB’s best offense. Chicago comes into Tuesday’s matchup with NL-best marks in both wOBA (.344) and wRC+ (122), with the team only trailing the Yankees in both categories for the top figure in all of baseball. Carson Kelly and Michael Busch have been pleasant surprises for the Cubs so far in 2025, yet it’s been Kyle Tucker leading the charge, slashing .302/.404/.615 with a .433 expected wOBA across his 114 plate appearances. Someone is going to get paaaaaaaaid very soon.

However, this isn’t simply a contest between two of the league’s best lineups, it’s also quite the pitchers duel. Shota Imanaga has picked up right where he left off in his dazzling rookie campaign, posting a 2.22 ERA across his first five starts of 2025. The advanced metrics haven’t loved Imanaga’s work — the lefty sports a 4.45 FIP — yet the native of Japan is on the heels of his best outing of the season, tossing five innings with seven strikeouts and zero earned runs against the Padres. Imanaga’s strikeout rate is concerning, sitting at only 18.6%, but Imanaga’s 14.0% swinging strike rate suggests that this is small sample size noise and that the whiffs are still present. A 90th percentile chase rate (36.0%) is pretty optimistic, too.

You’d be hard-pressed to look better than Dustin May has to begin 2025. The right-hander hadn’t thrown a pitch at the MLB level since 2023 due to a series of ailments, yet through three starts and 17.0 innings, May owns a sterling 1.06 ERA. He’s only allowed two earned runs this season. Heck, he’s only allowed seven hits. May’s fastball velocity isn’t quite what it used to be and a .156 BABIP is sure to regress, but the 27-year-old has definitely reminded people of his stuff and skill the past few weeks.

In a matchup of two talented teams, I’m inclined to simply back the home underdog, despite the Cubs being just 6-7 when not the favorite so far in 2025. That said, this is a lineup that is red-hot at the moment. It can also attack you in a variety of ways, as evidenced by Chicago ranking third in MLB in both home runs (34) and stolen bases (31).

The Cubs make a lot of contact, as well. In fact, Chicago is one of only four teams that enter the day with a swinging strike rate below 10%. Add in the eighth-lowest chase rate in all of baseball and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how the Cubs possess the sixth-lowest strikeout rate in the league (20.4%). This unit doesn’t have many flaws.

May’s never been an elite strikeout pitcher and that hasn’t changed so far in 2025.

Chicago’s bats stay hot and Imanaga pitches deep into tonight’s contest to seal the victory.