Shōta Imanaga was absolutely magnificent Friday at Wrigley Field.
He allowed just one baserunner, a two-out walk in the second inning. (More on that later.) He struck out nine.
Imanaga had to be removed after six innings, having thrown 100 pitches. No one quibbles with that. He was the first Cubs pitcher to throw 100 pitches this year. In fact, out of 376 games started in 2026 before Friday, just 26 pitchers (6.9 percent) had thrown 100 or more pitches, with the most being 109 by Robbie Ray of the Giants
this past Tuesday.
Caleb Thielbar, who’s been so good out of the pen since the beginning of last year, wasn’t today. A leadoff single by Ryan O’Hearn in the seventh spoiled any thought of a combined no-hitter and then Bryan Reynolds’ homer gave the Pirates a 2-0 lead that they did not give up, and that was the final score on a chilly Friday at Wrigley Field, a 2-0 Cubs loss.
This is largely because the Cubs had baserunners all over the place but could not do anything with them. Runners in the first and second came to naught because Alex Bregman (first) and Pete Crow-Armstrong (second) hit into inning-ending double playes. The Cubs had two on with one out in the third — nothing doing. They loaded the bases with two out in the fourth, but Moisés Ballesteros flied to left. They loaded the bases again with two out in the sixth, and Matt Shaw, batting for Ballesteros, struck out.
There was one last potential rally for the Cubs in the eighth. Again, they had a runner in scoring position with two out, but Shaw flied to right.
If you are counting — and helpfully, that boxscore link does that for you — that’s 0-for-8 for the Cubs with RISP and 11 men left on base. They had six hits and drew six walks and, well, teams should score more than zero runs with all those baserunners. Just to give you an idea how rare it is to not score at all with that many runners, here’s BCB’s JohnW53:
The Cubs had been shut out in only five previous games since 1901 with at least six hits and at least seven walks, their totals today. This was the first by 2-0.
The previous five:
April 10, 1979: lost at St. Louis, 7-0 (seven hits, seven walks)
May 19, 1985: lost at Atlanta, 3-0 (seven hits, eight walks)
May 17, 1991: lost at Philadelphia, 1-0, in 16 innings (10 hits, nine walks)
May 7, 2008: lost at Cincinnati, 9-0 (six hits, seven walks)
Aug. 22, 2011: lost at home to the Braves, 3-0
So let’s at least give props to Imanaga for an outstanding outing. He struck out nine [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Shōta’s start [VIDEO].
And still more from John:
Shōta Imanaga’s start was just the fifth by a Cub since 1901 in which he gave up no hits, threw at least 6.0 innings and did not complete a nine-inning no-hitter. Imanaga also was the last to do it, going 7.0 vs. the Pirates at Wrigley Field on Sept. 4, 2024.
The three others:
King Cole, on July 31, 1910, in a seven-inning game at St. Louis
Zach Davies, on June 24, 2021, with 6.0 at Los Angeles vs. the Dodgers
Ben Brown, on May 28, 2024, with 7.0 at Milwaukee
There was some good Cubs defense. After Reynolds’ homer, Marcell Ozuna hit a ball to right-center that PCA ran down [VIDEO].
At the beginning of this recap, I mentioned I’d have more on Imanaga’s walk. That’s because… it shouldn’t have been a walk:
As you can see, pitch 9, which was called ball four, was a strike. The Cubs opted not to use an ABS challenge on this pitch, which I suppose I can understand that early in a scoreless game. On the other hand, if they had… the inning would have been over and it would have saved Imanaga the five pitches he had to then use to strike out Konnor Griffin to actually end the inning.
Only you can’t necessarily assume that, because the sequencing would have been different with Griffin then leading off the third. So who knows? I assume the Cubs brass will discuss this and decide whether, in the future, they might want to challenge a pitch like this.
Anyway, the offense, or lack thereof, is what made this a frustrating game. After Thielbar, Ethan Roberts and Riley Martin set the Pirates down with no further damage, giving the Cubs at least a chance to come back, but they could not. The Pirates appear to be a better team this year than last, so hopefully the Cubs will be better prepared for the rest of this series.
Saturday, Edward Cabrera, who’s been excellent so far this year, will try to help the Cubs even up the series. Braxton Ashcraft goes for Pittsburgh. Game time is again 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
