Imanaga hits 11 strikeouts

Shota Imanaga struck out 11 Phillies on April 15, matching his Major League career high in Chicago’s 11-2 win at Citizens Bank Park. (mlb.com) The Cubs left-hander gave up a leadoff home run to Trea Turner, then allowed only three more baserunners over his next 21 plate appearances. He finished with six innings, three hits, one walk and one earned run. (mlb.com) Imanaga generated 26 swings and misses, tying Yu Darvish’s Cubs single-game mark in the pitch-tracking era that Major League Baseball lists as beginning in 2008. His splitter alone produced 14 whiffs. (mlb.com) The outing pushed Imanaga’s 2026 line to a 2.45 earned run average with 31 strikeouts and five walks in 22 innings through four starts. Since the first inning of his March 29 season debut, opponents are batting.127 against him, according to MLB.com. (mlb.com) Chicago needed that version of Imanaga again after his 2025 season was interrupted by a left hamstring strain that put him on the injured list from May 5 to June 26. He still made 25 starts last year, going 9-8 with a 3.73 earned run average and 117 strikeouts in 144 2/3 innings. (mlb.com) His baseline in Chicago was already high. In 2024, his first Major League season, Imanaga went 15-3 with a 2.91 earned run average and made the National League All-Star team. (mlb.com) Wednesday’s game also came against a Phillies lineup built around power bats such as Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. Imanaga held Schwarber and Harper to a combined 0-for-6 with five strikeouts. (mlb.com) The Cubs backed him with 15 hits, including Nico Hoerner’s career-high five runs batted in, and handed Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo eight earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. The win left Chicago at 9-9 and Philadelphia at 8-10. (espn.com) For one night, the stat that traveled fastest was the simplest one: 11 strikeouts, six innings, and another sign that Imanaga’s swing-and-miss stuff looks like it did in his 2024 breakout. (mlb.com)