Mound and frowned: Cubs waste sharp outing from Imanaga, lose to Pirates
Shota Imanaga's pitching performance Friday should have been cause for celebration, but the Cubs clubhouse was somber.
While Imanaga tossed 6 hitless innings with 9 strikeouts against the Pittsburgh Pirates, it meant nothing to the bottom line. Cubs hitters couldn't cross the plate and the result was a 2-0 loss at Wrigley Field.
After scoring a combined 15 runs in the previous two games, indoors at Tampa Bay, Cubs bats turned frigid in the return home. They did collect six singles and seven walks but finished the game 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. The Cubs put multiple runners on base in four innings.
“It's one of those offensive days where you do a lot of things right, and then you walk away and you're just, 'How did we not score today? How do we have a 0 on the board?'” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “So it's frustrating.”
Considering Imanaga's rough ending to 2025 and questionable return to Chicago during the offseason, this has been an impressive start. He has 20 strikeouts in 16 innings, a 2.81 ERA and 0.81 WHIP.
“He made some adjustments over the offseason,” catcher Carson Kelly said. “I think he's cleaned up some things — tempo, position on the mound. They're just little, minor adjustments that can make big changes and I think that's something he's done.”
By the end of the sixth inning, Imanaga had reached 100 pitches, so there wasn't much question he was done. The left-hander finished 7 innings during a combined no-hitter against the Pirates on Sept. 4, 2024, with Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge finishing it off.
“Where do you stop?” Counsell asked. “Then what does it do for his next start? There's danger in making that a 120-pitch outing in his third start of the year. Easy decision.”
Imanaga said after the game he agreed with the decision to leave the mound after six innings. Unfortunately, reliever Caleb Thielbar gave up the Pirates' first hit to Ryan O'Hearn leading off the seventh, and Bryan Reynolds followed with a 2-run homer to left. Thielbar surrendered four 100-plus mph exit velocity batted balls in his single inning of work.
“I haven't seen that since Caleb's been here, really,” Counsell said. “And his first three outings were very, very good.”
This hitting performance felt like last season, when the Cubs scored on the road, then flailed in windy conditions at Wrigley. Overall this year, the home-road splits have been pretty even. But a large number of Cubs aren't hitting. Michael Busch is at .125, Dansby Swanson .140, Alex Bregman .192, Moises Ballesteros .207, Pete Crow-Armstrong .216.
Basically everyone but Nico Hoerner and the two catchers aren't hitting. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer discussed that topic before the game.
“We're 6-6 (now 6-7),” Hoyer said. “We haven't really hit yet. I actually think that excites me, because we have really good players that haven't gotten going yet. At the end of the day, they'll get to where their baseball card says they should be, or better. I think we have a lot of positive regression coming to us on the offensive side. Hopefully it happens soon.”
Seiya Suzuki made his season debut by going 1-for-3 with a walk and playing a flawless right field. He's been on the injured list due to a right knee sprain suffered in the World Baseball Classic. He hit .429 in five games of a rehab assignment at Double-A Knoxville.