Shota Imanaga struggles from the get-go in Cubs' lopsided loss: ‘His stuff wasn't crisp and it wasn't good'
And when that part of his repertoire is off, Imanaga can run into trouble. It quickly became apparent Friday night at Rate Field that the Cubs left-hander did not possess his best stuff. When Imanaga has a lack of feel for his pitches, as he did against the White Sox, his outing turns into a grind. Imanaga struggled to get through three-plus innings, a laborious first inning setting the tone in the Cubs' lopsided 12-5 loss in the City Series.
'He just didn't have anything tonight, and they made him pay for it,' manager Craig Counsell said. 'His stuff wasn't crisp and it wasn't good.'
Imanaga needed 35 pitches to escape the first as the White Sox put up three runs for a quick lead. He surrendered three home runs in the loss. Austin Slater's home run and Edgar Quero's double to open the fourth ended Imanaga's night. The Sox tagged Imanaga for seven runs and a career-high 12 hits.
'Our game plan was he couldn't throw a fastball over the plate, and if he did, we were gonna be on it,' Slater said. 'And so what if we swing over a couple splitters. But we weren't going to let him just throw fastballs by us.'
The typically reliable Imanaga usually has led to wins for the Cubs whenever he takes the ball. The Cubs were 32-10 in Imanaga's starts since he debuted last year. But between Imanaga's inability to get on track from his early struggles and Sox right-hander Adrian Houser's effectiveness, the Cubs were getting blown out by the fifth inning as they trailed 11-0.
'I just didn't have consistency tonight, just how my body felt versus how the ball was coming out and didn't match up,' Imanaga said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry.
Reese McGuire's three-run home run to right field off Houser finally got the Cubs on the board in the seventh. A McGuire single and Kyle Tucker's bases-loaded walk in the eighth, to make it 12-5, were too late for the Cubs to keep chipping away at the Sox's big lead.
Sloppiness popped up all over the field for the Cubs. Vidal Bruján, getting the start at third because of Houser's extreme splits versus righties/lefties, committed a fielding error that led to an unearned run and had another ball he deflected that was ruled a single in the second to score a run. A routine ball dropped between left fielder Ian Happ and center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong during the third, resulting in a double for Michael A. Taylor that fortunately didn't come back to hurt Imanaga and the Cubs.
'We didn't play well tonight,' Counsell said. 'No doubt we did not play a good game tonight.'
Photos: White Sox 12, Cubs 5 at Rate FieldToo many balls out of hand and mistakes over the middle of the plate hurt Imanaga. His dip in velocity also was concerning. Imanaga's four-seam fastball was down 1.8 mph compared with his season average, dropping as low as 86.8 mph and topping out at 90.8 mph.
Imanaga said he felt good and is not dealing with an injury.
'I've had it in the past where sometimes I need to try, even if the velo is down, try to make it look like it's coming out faster,' Imanaga said. 'Or, even if it is down, trying to not miss my spots, but I wasn't able to do that tonight, so I just need to continue to work on that.
'I've had that in the past where maybe physically I don't feel 100% or at my A-game, but I still managed to figure out ways to compete. But I think tonight, the opposition, they just came out on top.'
Imanaga had been stellar coming into Friday. In his previous three starts, Imanaga allowed only three runs in 20 innings (1.35 ERA) with just two walks.
'It just shows the fine line of pitching in the big leagues and what success and struggles look like,' Counsell said. 'It's hard to believe that's the pitcher you saw the last two times making a start. That's how it works.'
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