CHICAGO – Shota Imanaga’s last pitch on Friday afternoon was a fastball at the bottom edge of the strike zone. The heater popped into the mitt of Cubs catcher Carson Kelly, Pirates third baseman Nick Yorke did not offer a swing and Imanaga gave a confident nod of his head as he headed back to the dugout.
It was the final touch on a brilliant performance by Imanaga, but one that pushed his pitch count to the century mark through six innings and necessitated a call to the bullpen for Cubs manager Craig Counsell.
The no-hitter that Imanaga was crafting went by the wayside in the seventh and the Cubs wound up with a 2-0 loss at the hands of the Pirates at Wrigley Field. That was a disappointing conclusion to a game that teased a repeating of history at the Friendly Confines. It was Imanaga, after all, who led a combined no-hitter against Pittsburgh just two years ago.
On Sept. 4, 2024, Imanaga turned in seven no-hit innings against the Pirates before bowing out. Relievers Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge finished the job on that night, carving their place in team history with the 18th no-hitter on the books for the Cubs. The Pirates avoided a similar script on Friday.
In the seventh, veteran lefty Caleb Thielbar took over and yielded a leadoff single to Ryan O’Hearn, followed by a first-pitch, two-run homer to Bryan Reynolds. That was that, given the offensive outage happening on the other side for the North Siders.
Imanaga walked off the mound with nine strikeouts and only one walk issued in his six-inning gem, which lowered his career ERA to 0.28 against the Pirates. In their five meetings, the lefty has limited Pittsburgh to one run over 32 frames, racking up 32 strikeouts against seven walks with only 13 hits allowed in total.
In this outing, Imanaga also piled up a season-high 18 swinging strikes.