The Boys from the Second City will travel to the Twin Cities for an interleague showdown with Game One set for Tuesday night. The All-Star break is on the horizon, with both teams seeking to solidify their positions in their respective divisions. The Cubs, are atop the NL Central, playing some solid baseball this season, while the Twins are battling just to remain relevant in a tightly packed American League playoff race. The Cubs will send Shota Imanaga to the mound with his 5-2 SU record and his ERA of just 2.78 on the season. Imanaga has not only been good at home he carries a 3-1 SU record away from home with an outstanding ERA of only 0.98 when starting away from Wrigley. More bad news for the Twins who are 5-11 SU versus left-handed starters in 2025. Minnesota will hang their hopes of a Game One victory on Simeon Richardson who is 4-4 SU with an ERA of 4.41 on the year. Richardson is 3-2 SU at home with an ERA of 3.82 but he is only 1-3 SU at night with an ERA of 5.72 this year. Richardson has posted just one quality start in thirteen appearances this season. The Twins will need Richardson to give them as many innings as possible because their bullpen has really struggled over the last month posting a record of 2-6 SU with an ERA of 6.51. Another comparison of the two starters we see over their last seven outings Imanaga is 3-2 SU with an ERA of 3.68 and a WHIP of 1.15 over thirty-six innings of work. Richardson over his last seven starts is 2-2 SU with an ERA of 4.72 and a WHIP of 1.25 over thirty-four innings of work. On the offensive side we note the Cubs are averaging 6.5 runs per game over their last six outings while the Twins are averaging just 3.0 runs per game over the same six game span. Our TPR Index projects a run advantage of 1.77 runs. The SPMatrix has Shota Imanaga with an average of 8.09 compared to Simeon Richardson who has an average of 5.12. Our next set of metrics looks at the overall Pitchers Power Ratings. Coming into this game and situation, Imanaga has a rating of 124 while Richardson has a rating of only 96 with the league average of 100. The SIM Matrix has the Chicago Cubs with a 74.25 percent advantage against the Minnesota Twins in tonight’s contest. We want to play ON the Chicago Cubs when Shota Imanaga gets the start, and the game total range is between 8.5 to 11.0 because they are a perfect 7-0 SU in this situation including 6-0 SU when on the road. Play AGAINST MLB home underdogs coming off an extra inning game in which they used five or more pitchers, 568-312 SU (65%)(+$12,151) including 65-30 SU (68%)(+$1,690) and 10-2 SU (83%)(+$582) L12 qualifying contests. We are going to lay the chalk with the boys from Second City as they take the opening game of their series in the Twin Cities Tuesday night. PREDICTION: 9* CHICAGO CUBS 5 MINNESOTA TWINS 3