Imanaga tiptoes through danger to provide consistency for Cubs

CINCINNATI -- Shota Imanaga is constantly trying to prove his value and worth to his teammates, even on a night when the results aren’t there.

Friday night in Cincinnati was one of those nights.

Imanaga (5-8) labored through five innings, allowing seven hits but just one run, striking out five batters and walking one. The lefty took the loss as the Cubs were blanked, 4-0, before 30,878 fans at Great American Ball Park in the opener of the three-game set.

While Imanaga fell three games below .500, he has still provided quality innings as a starter at a time when the Cubs are down three regulars in their rotation. His 19 starts are five more than the next closest in Edward Cabrera and Colin Rea.

“I take a lot of honor in being able to go out there every fifth day, sixth day,” Imanaga said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “I think I learned in the last three years how difficult it is. Obviously the results are the results, but going out every fifth, sixth day, taking the ball and pitching. I think that is really difficult, and so I do take a lot of pride in that.”

Imanaga was dancing around landmines early and often, allowing at least one hit in each of the first four innings, working around first-and-second jams in the first and third.

Imanaga’s only costly mistake in the first five innings was an 0-1 fastball he left belt high to Elly De La Cruz to open the fifth inning. Catcher Carson Kelly called for the fastball at the top of the zone, but Imanaga didn’t get it high enough as he left it on the inner third. De La Cruz turned on it, sending it to the first row in left-center at a 108.5 mph exit velocity for his 15th long ball of the season and a 1-0 Cincinnati lead.

“I think in that situation, I was trying to throw it a little more up in the zone,” Imanaga said. “Looking at the hitters, I’ve been trying to figure out if they’re trying to hit that fastball up or split down, and I think in that situation, I should have thrown the fastball more up.”

"Imanaga was dealing tonight,” said De La Cruz, who was 0-for-12 against Imanaga entering the fifth-inning at-bat. “He was doing a great job, so it was so important to get to him. That was also the first one. He got me all the time. I had him this time so it was good.”

Two outs later, JJ Bleday pulled a fly ball deep down the right-field line in foul territory. Seiya Suzuki appeared to make the catch up against the padding. The play was called a foul ball, but the Cubs challenged, arguing fan interference.

After a lengthy review that took over five minutes, replay revealed that not only did the ball hit the padding first before bouncing into Suzuki’s glove, the ball ticked off a fan’s fingertip before making contact with the wall. But the review ruled that the fan was not interfering in the field of play, so it became a dead ball and foul ball.

Imanaga recovered from the prolonged delay, fanning Eugenio Suárez to end the fifth.

Meanwhile, aside from Suzuki, the Cubs had no answers for Hunter Greene.

Suzuki had two of the three hits off Greene (1-1), singling to left to open the second and singling over a leaping Edwin Arroyo with one out in the seventh. Greene had one of the more dominating outings of his five-year career with Cincinnati.

Six days after allowing eight runs on seven hits to the Orioles, the right-hander -- in his second start back from March right elbow surgery -- allowed just three hits and struck out 12 and walked one in seven scoreless innings. The Cubs finished with a season-high 16 strikeouts against Cincinnati pitching.

“He was not in good form in his first start. He was in good form this start, and it’s a really good fastball to both sides, obviously,” Cubs skipper Craig Counsell said of Greene. “And then the split to the lefties and the slider to the righties. We didn’t take very many good swings. I think we probably hit four balls hard tonight. Five baserunners in total in the night, so that’s not never going to be enough.”

The Reds added insurance in the seventh against Jake Woodford, as Sal Stewart drove home De La Cruz with a sacrifice fly and Bleday added a two-run homer.