Imanaga shines at Coors, but Cubs' 'confusing' offensive woes continue

DENVER – Given Shota Imanaga’s recent troubles with giving up home runs, Coors Field did not seem like a great antidote for the Cubs’ starter. The lefty then went out and defied the elements on Wednesday with five scoreless innings, delivering one of his more impressive outings of the season.

In the end, Imanaga’s outing was buried beneath the Cubs’ persistent offensive issues.

Even in the Rockies’ hitter-friendly environment, the Cubs struggled to get much going in the batter’s box. Imanaga’s performance went for naught. A rare mistake from reliever Jacob Webb was magnified. And Chicago’s players trudged off the field after Sterlin Thompson delivered a walk-off hit off Daniel Palencia that dealt the Cubs a 3-2 loss.

“Tough game,” Cubs left fielder Ian Happ said. “We need to put up more runs for our pitching staff. They did a good job. Shota did a great job. Guys did a good job of coming out and shutting down innings, so we’ve got to put up a few more for them.”

Against Rockies righty Michael Lorezen, who entered the night with an 8.01 ERA, the Cubs managed just one run. Pete Crow-Armstrong led off the fourth with a triple and scored via a groundout from Moisés Ballesteros. Through eight innings, Chicago had three hits total. The team extended their hitless stretch with runners in scoring position in this series to 12 at-bats.

“We didn’t produce enough opportunities,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “Very few at-bats with runners in scoring position. Very few rallies. It’s a night offensively where you just didn’t do enough.”

It all added up to the 10th consecutive series without a series win for the Cubs, who also slipped to .500 (34-34) for the first time since April 16 (9-9). The North Siders have won just seven of their last 29 games, averaging 3.2 runs per game in that span. Chicago was 27-12 while scoring 5.5 runs per game prior to this 10-series slide.

While Wednesday’s loss featured only four at-bats with runners in scoring position, Happ said a perplexing aspect of the lineup’s woes has been the volume of runners without positive results. Entering the night, for example, the Cubs ranked third overall in the Majors in plate appearances with runners in scoring position (759), trailing only the Pirates (769) and Brewers (763). Chicago had a 91 wRC+ in those scenarios (9% below MLB average).

“The confusing part,” Happ said, “is that we’re still getting guys on base and not finding a way to get guys in. ... We don’t want to leave guys on base, but the fact that we’re getting guys on and giving ourselves opportunities, we’re going to cash in on it at some point. And we’ve got to keep believing that.”

Not delivering for Imanaga added another layer of frustration.

“We got a really good performance from Shota,” Counsell said. “I thought he pitched very well. There’s hopefully some confidence to build on.”

Imanaga entered the evening having allowed a dozen home runs in his last four starts for the North Siders. In that stretch, the lefty gave up 26 earned runs in 21 2/3 innings, resulting in his ERA ballooning to 4.74 after standing at 2.32 on the year through his first nine appearances.

Against the Rockies, Imanaga leaned heavily on his four-seamer, featuring it 61% of the time, compared to 41% overall this season. He dropped the use of his signature splitter to 22% (down from 35% this year). While mixing in some sweepers and curveballs, Imanaga generated 18 swinging strikes and ended with seven strikeouts in the outing.

“Me, personally, today I kept us in the game,” Imanaga said via his interpreter, Edwin Stanberry. “But the last four starts, I couldn’t, and I couldn’t help the team win. It’s moving forward and using today. And thinking about every time I’m out there, try to help the team win.”

Following Imanaga, Phil Maton and Caleb Thielbar got Chicago through the sixth and seventh innings with that slim advantage before Webb yielded a go-ahead, two-run homer to Rumfield in the eighth inning. Webb had allowed only two earned runs in his previous 19 games (0.87 ERA) dating back to April 19.

Happ erased that setback with a game-tying homer in the top of the ninth, but that was as far as the rally went.

“We didn’t give our pitching staff enough room tonight,” Counsell said. “In the end, that gets you here.”