Cubs Can Play Hamburgler Against Mets Grimace Magic

Mets vs. Cubs, 2:20 ET

After a bad weekend and a bad start to the week, it was nice to find a way to get a couple of wins on Wednesday. Now we've reached Friday and we have the start of a new series for almost every team in baseball. Football is one of the only other sports where almost every team plays on the same day. With baseball, we get a lot of days where everyone plays so it can be a bit overwhelming to try and find a spot to play. Thankfully, I've been doing this for years and know that I can find a good game. I think that I've found a great one for us as the Mets take on the Cubs.

Last year, there was this trend on TikTok that saw people take a drink of something and then they look liked they were possessed or passed out. Quite the turnaround just from taking a drink. That drink? The Grimace Shake from McDonalds. June 12th, the Mets had Grimace throw out the first pitch and that launched the Mets into a seven-game winning streak. Maybe that was just a coincidence (it was), but that has launched the Mets from being almost 10 games under .500 to now being just a few. Since the start of July, the Mets offense has finally started hitting the ball, and that has made the difference. The Mets are 11-4 in June. This month they have allowed 31 runs in the losses and 38 runs in the wins. This month they are also averaging 6.5 runs per game. Today, the Mets put Jose Quintana on the hill. Quintana, a former Cubs starter, is 2-5 with a 4.98 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP. He is coming off of one of his best starts of the season, one of his four quality starts that he has made this year. This could be a bad spot for the lefty as he has a 6.68 ERA on the road, compared to a 3.49 ERA at home. Cubs hitters are batting .267 against him in their careers which is 16-for-60, with seven extra-base hits. 

Jun 2, 2024; New York City, New York, USA;  New York Mets starting pitcher Jose Quintana (62) delivers a pitch during the first inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

The Cubs could use some sort of Grimace spark themselves. After starting the season hot and getting to 17-9 on April 26th, they have won two games in a row just twice and now sit 36-39. As of right now, the team is 19-30 over their last 49 games which is a significant portion of the season and could be an indication of who this team truly is. Sure, there have been injury issues, but they are relatively healthy now, and all teams have injuries. They didn't lose any of their best players for the full season so you have to think this is what the club actually is. They would need a very good stretch and a bad stretch from the Brewers to truly get back into the division race. The thing about the Cubs is they may just need to make the playoffs because they have three very strong arms in the rotation. Obviously the offense will still need to improve, but the pitching staff can support the team for a portion of time. Today's starter has been one of the best with Shota Imanaga taking the ball. His Rookie of the Year award looks like it could be in jeopardy due to Paul Skenes arrival, but he has been one of the best pitchers in baseball at 7-1 with a 1.89 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP. He has made 13 starts for the season, but just one of those starts has been poor. In that game, he allowed seven earned runs, he has allowed a total of 16 earned runs this season, so almost half came in one game. He has rebounded since then and has posted back-to-back quality starts. He did face the Mets earlier in the season, going seven innings and allowing only three earned runs. 

If we just played the game based on who is playing better, you have to take the Mets. The team is clicking right now, but maybe it was just a hot streak that almost all teams go on at some point in the season. I don't think they have much of a chance to win this game and we should back the Cubs to win here. With Imanaga on the hill the Cubs have been very good, 11-2 overall in his starts. I'll back the Cubs here and if the moneyline gets out of hand, I'll take the run line. If all games were -1.5, they are 7-6 against that spread. The Cubs beat the Mets 1-0 in Imanaga's start against them. 

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