Chicago Cubs Lineup (9/25/26, Game 2): Peterson, Bello Starting Late Game
The start time for this game was moved up 30 minutes from what was originally scheduled, which is kind of silly considering they didn’t have to do a split doubleheader at all. While it would not have been fun for the Red Sox logistically, as they’d already moved Sunday’s season finale to Friday afternoon, they might have to play Saturday’s game on Sunday in Tampa. If you’re gonna have a mess, make it a real mess.
Assuming they’re able to get this one in, it’ll be David Peterson facing Brayan Bello (no relation to Maria Bello or Scott Baio). I can’t offer much analysis here because of the timing, but suffice to say the Cubs have a lot more to play for in this one. Peterson has been up and down, so let’s hope this is an up start for him. Bello has likewise been up and down between Triple-A and the bigs this season.
The 27-year-old righty spent a little over a month in the minors and has bounced between the bullpen and rotation after opening the season with six starts. He had started almost exclusively through the first few seasons of his career, including a breakout 2025 campaign that saw him post a 3.35 ERA over 166.2 innings. That was a bit of a mirage, however, as his 4.19 FIP indicated.
Bello is a groundball pitcher who throws his 95 mph bowling ball sinker about 40% of the time. Like this afternoon’s starter, Alec Gamboa, Bello works down, down, down with everything. He’s going to give up a lot of contact, but he doesn’t walk many and he keeps the ball in the yard. Bello is capable of working deep, as evidenced by his eight-inning effort six days ago.
That followed a relief appearance in which he recorded five outs, so the Sox are using him like a Swiss Army Knife. These Cubs batters have done well against Bello in the past, with a .749 OPS over 41 total at-bats, but they’ve struck out 10 times with just one walk.
This figures to be a fairly quick game, which will be helpful if the teams indeed have to decamp to Tampa. Both squads have charters booked for tonight, so that is at least a strong possibility. First pitch is set for 4:35pm CT on Marquee and The Score.
