LOS ANGELES – When Shota Imanaga is at his best for the Cubs, he is extremely stingy when it comes to allowing baserunners. The lefty limits damage by limiting walks, which made the start of his outing on Sunday afternoon ominous.
Imanaga walked Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández – two of the first three hitters in the Dodgers' lineup – in the first inning, setting an unfortunate tone in a 6-0 loss that gave Los Angeles a series win at Dodger Stadium. It led to an early three-run outburst that held up amid a quiet day for the Cubs’ offense.
It had been more than a year since Imanaga had issued two walks in the same inning. He last did so on April 15 last season, making it 154 consecutive innings between the regular season and playoffs between two-walk frames for the starter. Imanaga ended Sunday with three walks overall – only the fourth time in 60 career starts he issued that many.
Ohtani stole second after his leadoff walk and moved to third on a throwing error by Cubs catcher Carson Kelly. That set up a sacrifice fly off the bat of Andy Pages to put Chicago in a quick, 1-0 hole. Miguel Rojas later followed with a two-run double, putting three runs on Imanaga’s line after he had yielded three total in his previous four outings combined.
Imanaga ended with five runs allowed in 5 1/3 innings against the Dodgers, who tacked on a pair of runs in the sixth.
The Cubs struggled to solve L.A. left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who spun six shutout frames and struck out six. The North Siders had two on with no outs in the first, and loaded the bases in the second, but were unable to find the breakthrough hit they needed.