CHICAGO – All
Swanson scooped up the third-inning grounder from Arizona’s Ketel Marte and fired to first for the out, offering a snapshot of how the Cubs pulled off their 2-0 win on Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Imanaga relied on generating weak contact and did so with precision en route to a fourth consecutive win for the North Siders.\n\n“If there’s a ball hit that’s behind me, it’s going to be an out,” Imanaga said via his interpreter, Edwin Stanberry. “Everybody has fantastic defense, but on top of the defense, they have great positioning as well.”\n\nThe win was the 10th in a row at home for the Cubs, marking their longest streak at the Friendly Confines since a 14-game run from May 18-June 22, 2008.
The lone run that Chicago managed off D-backs righty Ryne Nelson arrived in the second inning, when
That was all the help Imanaga required.\n\n \n“He pitched really wonderfully,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “He was mixing up everything. … He pitched really, really well. He’s pitching at a really high level and he’s executing at a really high level.”\n\n \nImanaga finished with seven shutout innings – a solid bounceback outing after giving up four runs in a road loss to the Dodgers last time out. This outing was closer to the four outings prior to that one in Los Angeles in which he turned in a tidy 1.13 ERA. Now, Imanaga has a 2.40 ERA with 43 strikeouts and just 10 walks in 41 1/3 innings.
How Imanaga navigated this start against Arizona was a little different.
At the start of the game, Imanaga was leaning heavily on his four-seamer, but then flipped the usage with catcher Miguel Amaya as the innings went on. After using his heater 59% of the time the first time through the order, Imanaga dropped the rate to just 8% the third time through. His splitter use climbed from 41% (first time through) to 50% (second) to 72% (third).\n\n“There were scenarios where I picked that I wanted to throw a splitter,” Imanaga said. “And there were scenarios where Miggy picked that the splitter was the better choice. … Based on the flow of the game, and based on which pitch was the lowest risk for damage, that’s kind of how it ended up.”\n\nNot only did Imanaga create 12 of his 14 swinging strikes via his signature splitter, the lefty also increasingly got outs on the ground. After having four groundball outs across the first five innings, Imanaga induced six groundouts in his final two frames. Five came courtesy of Swanson.\n\nSwanson had the heads-up play on the Marte grounder in the third, but then dropped jaws with another highlight-reel gem in the sixth. Geraldo Perdomo sent an 0-2 splitter from Imanaga up the middle, where Swanson ranged to his left and leaned down to glove the grounder. The shortstop spun and fired while on the move, getting Perdomo at first by a step.
“That spin throw,” Happ said, “I get a really good view of it, but his ability to find first base there and make a strong throw – I’ve seen so many of those plays from over the years – it never ceases to amaze me.”\n\n