Shōta Imanaga continues to prove he's the ace the Chicago Cubs were hoping for, but even his brilliance on the mound isn't enough to snap the team out of a troubling slump. The Cubs fell to the Atlanta Braves 4-1 on Tuesday night, extending their losing streak to a season-high four games in a row.
Imanaga delivered yet another stellar performance, tossing seven strong innings and starting the eighth before being lifted. It was the third time this season he's gone seven innings deep. Unfortunately, reliever Phil Maton couldn't hold a 1-1 tie, and the Braves capitalized. But the real story is much bigger than one reliever's outing.
The Cubs' offense is in a full-blown crisis. For the fourth straight game, they managed just a handful of hits—this time only four. Over their four-game losing streak, Chicago has totaled a mere 13 hits. To put that in perspective, the franchise has only seen such a drought three times before, and all were over a century ago (1905, 1912, and 1920). The last time they had fewer hits over four games was in April 2021, when they managed just 12—but even then, they won two of those games. This time around, the bats have gone completely silent.
The game started quietly until the bottom of the fourth, when Braves rookie Drake Baldwin launched a solo home run off Imanaga. That early run wasn't a death sentence—Imanaga has allowed just five homers in 54.1 innings this season, and four of those have been solo shots. The Cubs answered back in the top of the fifth. Carson Kelly singled and moved to second on a groundout. After Dansby Swanson walked, Braves starter JR Ritchie was pulled for reliever Tyler Kinley. That's when Nico Hoerner stepped up and delivered a game-tying RBI single—making him the first Cubs player to drive in a run on his birthday since... himself, exactly one year ago.
That 1-1 score held through seven innings, thanks largely to Imanaga's dominance. But the Cubs' offense never found another gear. They couldn't string together hits or manufacture runs, and the Braves took full advantage in the eighth. For a team that prides itself on timely hitting, this stretch is alarming. With the bats missing in action, even the best pitching performances are going to waste. If the Cubs want to turn this ship around, they need to find their swing—and fast.