Japanese pitcher Shota Imana (31) of the Chicago Cubs, who made an impressive debut in the U.S. Major League Baseball, has lost his bid to secure his second win this season. Instead, he blocked Shohei Ohtani (LA Dodgers) and displayed his power.
Imanaga started the home game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, on the 8th (Korea time) and recorded two hits and three strikeouts in four innings. He showed good pitching in two consecutive games following his six innings of two hits and nine strikeouts in his MLB debut against the Colorado Rockies on the 2nd.
The weather is why Imanaga pitched only four innings against the Dodgers on the 8th.
With the Cubs leading 5-0, at the bottom of the fourth inning with one out and runners on the first and third bases. The game was suspended due to rain at Dansby Swanson’s at-bat. It took a whopping 2 hours and 51 minutes for the game to resume. Imanaga threw 43 balls (32 strikes) through the fourth inning, but could no longer take the mound.
Despite missing two wins this season due to rain-induced suspension, Imana displayed powerful pitching following her debut game. She completely blocked the Dodgers’ “MVP strike line” including Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
In two confrontations with Ohtani, he struck out a swing and induced a fly ball to the third baseman. In particular, he met Ohtani in the top of the first inning with no runner on the first out and was at a disadvantageous count of 3 balls to 1 strike, but he induced a swing and miss for the fifth pitch. Since then, Ohtani has been persistent with fouls on six to eight consecutive pitches, but Imanaga struck out a swing and miss with a four-seam fastball of 151 kilometers per hour for the ninth pitch.
He got a hit by Freeman after two outs in the first inning, but handled cleanup hitter Will Smith with a fly ball to center field. In the second inning, he got a hit by Teoscar Hernandez and ended the inning with two strikeouts and a groundout to the infield. In the third and fourth innings, he got three outs in a row.
Imanaga was the most left-handed pitcher in Japanese pro baseball. Last year, he pitched in 22 games and won seven games and lost four with a 2.80 ERA. Due to his strength, he has posted 64 wins and 50 losses with a 3.18 ERA in NPB since his debut in 2016. At the World Baseball Classic last year, he led the mound together with Ohtani and Yu Darvish (San Diego Padres) to help him win the championship.
Imanaga, who applied for a posting system (closed competitive bid) to avoid Yoshinobu Yamamoto, signed with the Cubs amid a lower-than-expected four-year total of $53 million (W71.8 billion). Some clubs offered better terms, but Imanaga joined hands with the Cubs.
According to MLB.COM, Imanaga was the second MLB pitcher to have 5 2/3 innings of no-hit in his MLB debut over the past 50 years, following probably Uri Telemaco (May 16, 1996). He was recorded as the first Cubs pitcher to have nine strikeouts in six or more innings of scoreless pitching in his MLB debut since 1901. It is the first time since Nick Kingham (then Pittsburgh Pirates) that he has recorded “six innings of no loss, no outs, and nine strikeouts” in his MLB debut in 2018.
In his two appearances in the big league, Imana has one win and zero ERA. The strike rate against Dodgers on Tuesday is very high at 74.4 percent. He has 12 strikeouts during a total of 10 innings pitched in the MLB.
Ohtani hit only after Imanaga left the mound. He hit his first triple of the season in the top of the sixth inning, and hit an RBI double after two outs in the eighth inning. Ohtani, who had two hits in four times at bat, rose to 0.320 this season.
The game was won 8-1 by the Cubs, who scored seven points in the first to fourth innings based on Imanaga’s good pitching.
BY: 스포츠토토핫