Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals preview, Sunday 3/29, 1:20 CT

Sunday notes…

SPLITSVILLE: This is the 73rd of the Cubs’ 151 National League seasons in which they have split their first two games. They are 34-38 in the third games of those seasons, including 18-14 after losing, then winning, as they have this year. This is the 28th season in which the Cubs have begun the season with a three-game series at home. They split the first two games of 14 of the previous series, then won the rubber game of seven. They were 3-4 after winning, then losing, as they have this season. All the wins were over the Pirates, in 1929, 1949 and 2021. The losses were to four different teams: the Mets, in 1981; the Cardinals, in 1991; the Braves, in 1993; and the Pirates, in 2011. (Courtesy BCB’s JohnW53)

ALSO AFTER TWO GAMES: Last year, after the two season-opening games in Tokyo against the Dodgers, the Cubs were 0-2 and had been outscored 10-4. This year, they have scored 14 runs and allowed 12 after splitting their first two.

THE BUSCH LEAGUE: Over his last seven regular-season games dating to Sept. 24, 2025, Michael Busch is batting .480/.630/1.148 (12-for-25) with five doubles, a triple, four home runs, five walks and nine RBI.

CUBS vs. NATS: The Cubs are 12-5 vs. the Nationals since July 18, 2023, including a sevengame winning streak from July 18, 2023-Sept. 20, 2024.

Cubs lineup:

Nationals lineup:

Shōta Imanaga, LHP vs. Jake Irvin, RHP

Today, we begin to find out whether Shōta Imanaga can recover his 2024 form. Even then, he did allow a fair number of home runs, but his walk rate was low and he kept guys off base enough to have an outstanding season.

Shōta did not face the Nationals last year. That means that most of the Nats have very few PA against him — no one on their roster has more than six total AB against him.

And not one of them has homered off Imanaga. So that’s good! Let’s hope we can say the same thing after this game.

Speaking of home runs, Jake Irvin led all of MLB in home runs allowed last year — 38 of them. He also had a 5.70 ERA and 114 earned runs allowed. Both of those figures were also MLB-worst among qualified starters.

Irvin’s last appearance against the Cubs was Sept. 5, 2025 at Wrigley Field. He allowed seven runs — five of them in the first inning — and two home runs (Dansby Swanson and Reese McGuire). McGuire’s obviously gone, but current Cubs are batting .290/.380/.536 (20-for-89) against Irvin with four home runs (Swanson, Miguel Amaya, Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong).

Sounds like a good day to go deep.

Here is the weather forecast for the area around Wrigley Field.

Today’s game is on Marquee Sports Network.

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Nationals site Federal Baseball. If you do go there to interact with Nationals 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.

The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.

You’ll 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).

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled “Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of week/date) game threads.” It will contain every post related to that particular game.

The Live! (formerly “First Pitch”) 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.

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

Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals preview, Sunday 3/29, 1:20 CT

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