LOS ANGELES -- It had been more than a calendar year since Shota Imanaga issued two walks in the same inning. Attacking the strike zone and being stingy is what the Cubs' starter does best, so it made the first inning on Sunday afternoon an odd sight.
Imanaga missed with an outside fastball to walk Shohei Ohtani to open the frame. Two batters later, the lefty nodded his head on the mound after watching a splitter to Teoscar Hernández fade too far under the zone for a second free pass. It was a rare lapse in command, and the Dodgers excel in capitalizing on such moments.
“This team, you just can’t walk people,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said after a 6-0 loss. “You can’t give them free bases. You just have to make them hit their way on. They also make you throw quality pitches.”
Between the regular season and playoffs, Imanaga had gone 154 consecutive innings without having a frame featuring two walks. The last time it happened was April 15 last season in a road outing against the Padres. From April 16 last year through Saturday, Imanaga led the Majors with a 3.9% walk rate (min. 140 innings).
Heading into Sunday’s outing, Imanaga had been pitching at an ace-level again, too. He had yielded three runs total in his previous four turns -- good enough for a 1.13 ERA. That included six no-hit innings on April 15 in Philadelphia, followed by a seven-inning gem last time out. Imanaga had four walks total in the recent four-start stretch.
That context made the opening frame Sunday all the more glaring.
“In the first inning, there were a couple times where I missed the location,” Imanaga said via his interpreter, Edwin Stanberry. “I couldn’t execute in the right spot. And I couldn’t make that adjustment within that inning.”
After leading off with his walk, Ohtani stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error from Cubs catcher Carson Kelly. The Dodgers' star later scored via a sacrifice fly. Hernández walked and then moved to third on a double from Kyle Tucker. They both then scored on a two-run double by Miguel Rojas.
On a day when Chicago’s offense -- a unit that hit .316 with a .926 OPS and 90 runs scored in the previous 13 games -- went quiet, the early command issued proved costly.
The North Siders put the first two runners aboard in the first inning, but Dodgers lefty Justin Wrobleski escaped unscathed. The Cubs then loaded the bases with one out in the second. Again, the breakthrough hit was missing. On the day, Chicago finished 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and a dozen stranded.
“We had opportunities,” Kelly said. “We just didn’t execute and come through in those moments. That’s what this team does -- we come through in those moments. Today was a day we just didn’t.”
And that, in turn, put Imanaga’s early missteps under the magnifying glass.
This is where it is worth noting that Imanaga did turn things around after that initial walk-fueled outburst by Los Angeles. Following Rojas’ double in the first, the Cubs' lefty held the Dodgers to a 2-for-15 showing through the fifth inning. Two more hits and a walk in the fifth, however, set L.A. up for two additional runs.
Imanaga exited with five runs on his line in 5 1/3 innings and walked away with six strikeouts. He also racked up 17 whiffs (swinging strikes), marking his fourth time having at least that many already this year. Imanaga only had one start with 17 or more whiffs last year and posted 10 such outings in his breakout rookie year in ‘24.
Imanaga nearly had an even mix between his four-seamer (35 pitches), splitter (30) and sweeper (29) overall in the outing. That was a season-high for sweepers thrown and tied for the most he has used in one start in his MLB career. There was a reason he leaned heavily on that pitch, too.
“It helps him get his line back when he gets the sweeper going,” Kelly explained. “It’s something that we don’t use a ton, but we use it enough. And I think sometimes when he’s a little bit off, that’s a pitch that helps him get back on line and then we get back to using everything.”
The damage had been done, but Imanaga took some solace in how he recovered after the first inning.
“I saw we needed to change what pitches [I threw] and the pitching sequence,” Imanaga said. “I think I was able to make that adjustment from the second inning [on]. So, I think that’s a good takeaway from today.”