CHICAGO – Amid the Cubs’ search for rotation help before Monday’s Trade Deadline, Shota Imanaga once again put his importance to the team's playoff run on display.
Imanaga has been pitching like an ace for several weeks now, adding another interesting layer for Chicago’s final two months. On Friday, he lasted into the seventh inning, but it went for naught as the Cubs’ lineup went quiet in a 2-0 loss to the Yankees in the opener of a three-game set at Wrigley Field.
“He’s been fantastic,” Cubs outfielder Ian Happ said of Imanaga. "It's been fun to watch. Not enough run support for him today, but he was fantastic.”
Here were three takeaways from Friday’s loss:
1. Quality work from Shota
The Cubs’ rotation as a whole has been on a strong run over the past few weeks, with Imanaga playing a key role in this stretch. That continued against the Yankees, even if a couple mistakes marred the lefty’s overall line.
Imanaga gave the North Siders 6 2/3 innings and limited New York to two solo home runs – one by Amed Rosario in the fourth and another from Spencer Jones in the fifth – marking the third straight quality start for the pitcher. The Cubs lefty finished with six strikeouts, no walks and four hits allowed in the 101-pitch performance (65 strikes).
“I thought it was excellent,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of Imanaga’s effort. “You give up two runs and you get outs in the seventh inning, that’s a good start.”
With that showing, Imanaga now has a 2.09 ERA with 45 strikeouts against 10 walks in 51 2/3 innings over his past nine turns for Chicago’s rotation. He has lowered his season ERA to 3.67 from 4.74 in that span.
Using his typical pitch mix – led by a four-seamer, splitter and sweeper – Imanaga ended the afternoon with 19 whiffs. It represented the 10th start this season in which the left-hander had at least 16 swinging strikes. Imanaga had only one such outing in all of 2025.
"Imanaga, I thought the first time through the order kind of cut through us pretty easily,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I thought the second time, we barreled a lot of balls up. We didn't have a ton to show for, but we did have the two big homers.”
2. Warren’s change of pace
Yankees starter Will Warren did something on Friday that he had never done in his big league career. The righty used his changeup more than any of his other offerings, and the strategy worked against the Cubs’ potent offense.
The Cubs could not get anything going at the plate against Warren in his 6 2/3 scoreless innings, in which he struck out seven, allowed four hits and issued no walks. Chicago did put two runners aboard in the seventh, but Paul Blackburn entered from the Yankees’ bullpen and induced an inning-ending fielder’s choice groundout from Nico Hoerner.
“It was just a pitcher kind of at his peak, doing all the things that he is really good at,” Counsell said. “He was able to throw offspeed whenever he wanted. His fastball was well-located, and big pitches in decision counts. He pitched a good game.”
Warren finished with a career-high 24 changeups in the outing, using the pitch 27% of the time against the Cubs (compared to just 11% on the season overall). The righty also had a spike in curveball use (16% on Friday vs. 8% on the year), and reduced the number of fastballs Chicago got to see.
“Probably, that was their scouting report today,” Happ said. “Throw offspeed, especially to the lefties. He did a good job throwing the fastball with two strikes and kind of saving it until then. It must have been a big part of their game plan.”
3. Kelly’s hometown debut
Prior to Friday’s game, the Cubs promoted lefty Antoine Kelly from Triple-A Iowa with Gavin Hollowell landing on the injured list with a right shoulder setback. After seven years and 192 games in the Minor Leagues, the Chicago-born Kelly had a chance to make his Major League debut.
That moment arrived in the eighth inning, when the Yankees had two runners on base with two outs and slugger Ben Rice due up. The North Siders turned things over to the 26-year-old Kelly, who is a product of Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Ill.
“It was cool,” Kelly said. “I’m not going to lie, I didn’t really expect it. I didn’t think I was going to throw today since it was a fairly close game. But, I got the job done.”
Acquired in a trade with the Dodgers in June, Kelly flashed his sinker that sits around 96-97 mph and then used a 2-2 slider – one that veered low and outside – to strike out Rice to begin his MLB career. Kelly then held New York in check in the ninth inning to offer one more chance for the Cubs’ lineup to rally.
“Antoine was great today,” Counsell said. “That’s a difficult situation to make your debut in. You’re facing one of the best hitters in baseball this year. And he made some great pitches and gave us two more chances, really, to tie the game. Hats off to him. He had a really good day.”