Lile out of starting lineup on Friday

Swanson left Sunday’s game with an oblique injury. Pedro Ramírez will likely become the Cubs’ primary second baseman while Swanson is out, with Nico Hoerner moving to shortstop. Kevin Alcántara could rejoin the team as a bench player until Matt Shaw is ready to come off the IL.

Massey singled twice, but the big blow was a solo homer off Ryan Johnson to give Massey his 11th homer of the season. The 28-year-old has put together a competent 2026 campaign with a .271/.301/.442 slash in 325 at-bats. The one thing holding Massey back is a lack of steals — just two this year — but he does help compensate with the pop.

Witt Jr. took Ryan Johnson deep in the fifth inning to extend the Royals’ lead to 2-0. The 26-year-old has disappointed in his power production in 2026, but this puts the star shortstop up to 14 homers with 43 RBI with 37 games to go.

The only hit Cameron allowed was a single by Vaughn Grissom. The left-hander was outstanding while striking out eight, issuing just one walk and throwing 73-of-115 pitches for strikes. Cameron has now gone at least eight innings in three of his last four starts, a development no one could have seen coming based on his struggles for the majority of the year. A chance to do it again is scheduled for Friday against the Tigers.

After arguably the best debut for any MLB hitter in the history of the sport, Báez was given an unfriendly reminder of how difficult it can be. It would have been fun to see him follow up his historic three-homer game with a similar effort, but it wouldn’t have been very realistic. Expect to see some similar games for Báez over these final few weeks, but with some efforts similar to that first contest as well.

Even with Joshua Báez crashing back to earth with a hitless, three-strikeout day, the Cardinals were still able to pound the Cubs’ pitching again. Walker was responsible for four of those 11 runs, with two of them coming on a homer off Ryan Rolison in the fourth inning. The 24-year-old has now gone deep 24 times in his breakout campaign, and he had two more hits to improve his average to .284. Walker has slowed after his red-hot start, but the overall production is beyond encouraging.