Shōta Imanaga had a good outing, but not his best. The offense struggled at times after one big inning that featured Kyle Tucker’s first home run at Wrigley Field since July 19.
Thus it was up to the Cubs bullpen to close things out, and they did. Drew Pomeranz, Caleb Thielbar and Daniel Palencia (22nd save) threw three innings of shutout relief and the Cubs hung on for a 4-3 win over the Braves.
Imanaga breezed through the first three innings, allowing just a one-out walk in the first. He got some
help from his defense — check out this terrific sliding stop by Dansby Swanson in the third [VIDEO].
Nice tag by Justin Turner on the other end of that play, too.
The Cubs offense exploded in the fourth. Kevin Alcántara, starting in place of Pete Crow-Armstrong in center field, singled with one out and Nico Hoerner also singled.
Tucker then smashed this three-run homer [VIDEO].
About Tucker’s blast, from BCB’s JohnW53:
Kyle Tucker’s three-run homer was the 149th of his career. It was his first this year to the opposite field. He has hit 10 to left field and four to left center, for a total of 14 — less than one of every 10.
Seiya Suzuki followed the homer with a walk. One out later, Turner blooped a single to right, with Suzuki taking third.
Seiya scored on this single by Ian Happ [VIDEO].
That run would prove to be very, very important. The Braves plated two in the fourth off Imanaga. Matt Olson tripled into the right-field corner and scored on a wild pitch. That turned out to not matter, as Ozzie Albies followed with a home run.
Swanson helped prevent more runs from scoring in that inning with this nice stop and throw [VIDEO].
It would remain 4-2 only for an inning, as Eli White homered in the fifth to make it 4-3.
The Cubs offense, as it so often has done, vanished after a big inning. Following that four-run third, the Cubs had just three baserunners. First, a single by Tucker in the fifth. He was erased on a force play and a double play ended the inning. Then, Swanson and Matt Shaw drew two-out walks in the sixth, but Alcántara struck out to end the inning.
Imanaga completed six innings, allowing three runs on five hits. He struck out just two and issued no walks. It goes in the books as a “quality start,” but just barely, and it wasn’t one of Shōta’s best efforts. Here’s more on Imanaga’s start [VIDEO].
More on Shōta’s start from John:
Imanaga now has 11 quality starts. His record in them is just 5-3 and the Cubs’ record in those games is 6-5. In all other pitchers’ QS, the Cubs are 35-9.
Thus it was up to the bullpen. Pomeranz allowed a one-out single in the seventh, but finished things up scoreless. Thielbar had a 1-2-3 eighth.
Then it was up to Palencia. I have to say, Palencia entering to “Gasolina” with the lights flashing at Wrigley during a night game is pretty cool. He began the ninth with a strikeout, then allowed a single. A fly ball to left put the Cubs one out from victory, but a ground ball up the middle got just far enough to be another hit.
Palencia calmly got White to fly to center to end the game [VIDEO].
You’ll note PCA made that catch, as he had entered for defense in the ninth. I suspect we will see him get some days off against left-handed starters for a while.
One sour note about this game — Tucker left after six with what was reported as left calf tightness. Here’s Tucker talking about that, and his home run, after the game [VIDEO].
It doesn’t sound too serious, but it seems likely Tucker will sit out Wednesday’s game (and see Craig Counsell’s comments below for more on that). As Tucker mentions in the clip, the Cubs are off Thursday so having a couple of days off might take care of what sounds like a minor issue.
Here are Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
Note from John on the one-run victory:
This was the eighth of the Cubs’ last 17 games decided by one run — nearly half. Only 30 of their first 122 were by one run, less than one quarter.
Here’s where the Cubs stand in the postseason races. With this win and the Reds’ loss to the Blue Jays, the Cubs’ magic number to clinch a postseason spot is 14. With this win and the Padres’ loss to the Orioles, the Cubs’ magic number to clinch the top wild-card spot was reduced to 20. And… the Cubs edged to within five games of the Brewers for the NL Central lead. Again, winning the division still seems unlikely… but neither is it impossible.
The Cubs will go for the series sweep over the Braves Wednesday evening at Wrigley Field. Cade Horton will go for the Cubs and Bryce Elder starts for Atlanta. Game time is again 6:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
