Nothing Shota Imanaga does this season will be surprising.
But that doesn’t mean you still can’t be impressed with a performance like the one he put on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.
Imanaga, like he has been for most of this season, was spectacular, tying his career high with 10 strikeouts in the Cubs’ 7-3 win over the Twins.
“He was great,” manager Craig Counsell said. “The strikeouts are definitely a big sign. There weren’t many balls today that were hard-hit. I thought he pitched a great game and had seven strong innings. To be able to last that long helps us at the end of this long stretch.”
The left-hander caught the Twins off guard with a combination of four-seam and splitter, retiring the first 10 Minnesota batters he faced, especially against a Twins team that had never seen him pitch before, which made his powerful splitter stand out.
(More: Shota Imanaga introduces new routine between innings, and as always, it’s very entertaining)
Imanaga used his off-speed pitch 35 times, inducing 12 strikeouts. It’s been his go-to pitch for most of the season, but he’s been working on fine-tuning it and did so successfully Tuesday night.
“It felt like guys were adjusting to that,” Imanaga said through translator Edwin Stanberry. “We weren’t getting as many strikeouts, but we worked on it in the second half and we sort of figured it out. Now we’re pitching to get strikeouts and we’re getting strikeouts.”
“Sometimes when I was getting hit, it would stay in the zone. So it wasn’t that I remembered how to use the splitter to induce a strikeout, I just figured it out again. And the results are coming in.”
His only blemish was giving up a two-run homer off Royce Lewis on a four-seam fastball caught inside home plate.
There was no need for concern for the 30-year-old, as he regained his rhythm after the home run, striking out 11 of the next 12 batters he faced.
This was the type of pitching Cubs fans have become accustomed to seeing from Imanaga: pitching long games, striking out many batters and not walking many batters. This was Imanaga’s 13th quality start in his 21st start of the season. His 10 strikeouts were the same number he struck out against the Diamondbacks on July 21, and his one walk marked his 17th game of the season in which he walked one batter or less.
The Cubs’ lineup also gave him a quick lead. Isaac Paredes hit his first home run of the season, a three-run homer to left field in the first inning, and followed that up with a one-run single two innings later, giving him his best hitting performance since being acquired by the Rays before the July 30 trade deadline.
“Hopefully we can get a fresh start and move forward again,” Counsell said before the game. “He’s been working on some things to get himself stabilized and he’s just continuing to work hard.”
He only needed one at-bat to prove it. On the first pitch, with a 19 mph wind blowing, Paredes smashed a 101.1 mph home run to left field. Normally it’s a sure thing, but on Tuesday it was a basket shot. It was the first extra-base hit he’d ever made with the team that first signed him as a teenager.
