Hopefully, his bases-l0aded two-run single that broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning will help him get back to who he was last year. The Cubs also got home runs from Nico Hoerner and Seiya Suzuki and rode yet another outstanding outing from Shōta Imanaga to a 7-4 win over the Phillies on a warm April evening at Wrigley Field. It was the team’s seventh straight win, their longest winning streak since an eight-game run from July 21-29, 2023. It was also the Phillies’ seventh consecutive loss.
Let’s begin at the beginning. Imanaga breezed through the first four innings, allowing just a leadoff walk to Trea Turner and a fourth-inning single to Félix Reyes. Help came, as usual, from the defense. Matt Shaw made this nice grab in foul territory in the first [VIDEO].
The Cubs, though, could not break through in that four-inning stretch, despite having multiple baserunners in multiple innings. They stranded two runners in the second and had the bases loaded in the third with one out when Alex Bregman and Ian Happ walked and Suzuki was hit by a pitch. But Carson Kelly popped up and Busch grounded out.
Stranding runners was going to become a theme in this game.
Dansby Swanson led off the fourth with a walk and one out later was on third after a single by Pete Crow-Armstrong. But he ended the inning right there, on third base.
The Cubs finally got on the board in the fifth. Another walk to Happ was followed by a single from Suzuki. The next two Cubs were routine outs, but they loaded the bases on a walk to Swanson.
Moisés Ballesteros was sent up to bat for Shaw. With the crowd standing, he walked to force in a run [VIDEO].
Ballesteros, who won numerous ABS challenges while catching during Spring Training, clearly has excellent strike zone judgment.
Scott Kingery was sent in to run for Ballesteros. This move would come back to hurt the Cubs, a bit, later in the game. Craig Counsell was making moves in the fifth inning that a team wouldn’t normally make that early.
PCA, unfortunately, grounded out to end the inning and the Cubs left the bases loaded for the second time.
Kyle Schwarber homered off Imanaga with one out in the sixth to tie the game. It was Imanaga’s only real mistake in seven strong innings. Shōta has allowed just three home runs in 29 innings so far this year, a huge improvement over 2025. He also currently has the best WHIP in MLB at 0.724 and 32 strikeouts in the 29 innings. Imanaga struck out just one in this game, but got 11 ground-ball outs. Here’s more on Shōta’s evening [VIDEO].
A few more notes on Imanaga’s start, from BCB’s JohnW53:
Imanaga is just the fourth Cubs pitcher in the Live Ball Era to start each of his first 59 career games. The first three were Kerry Wood, in 1998-2001; Mark Prior, in 2002-04; and Kyle Hendricks, in 2014-16.Prior had the lowest ERA of the three, 2.99. Imanaga’s is 3.19. Hendricks’ was 3.31; Woods’, 4.06.…..Prior’s also is the lowest among 18 Cubs who made at least 50 starts among their first 59 career games. Rick Reuschel is second, at 3.10 in 56 starts, then Imanaga, Hendricks, Burt Hooton (3.39 in 55), Mike Harkey (3.47 in 58) and Moe Drabowsky (3.50 in 52).
Greg Maddux (55 starts) is tied with Dick Ellsworth (50) for 13th, at 4.05. Jamie Moyer had the highest ERA, 5.01 in 56 starts.
The Cubs broke the tie in the bottom of the sixth. Nico led off with a single. Bregman hit a line drive right at Turner for the first out. Happ singled, but Suzuki struck out. Another walk, drawn by Carson Kelly, loaded the bases.
Busch has actually started to hit, a little, over the last week or so. He’s 8-for-30 (.267) over his last eight games, with four walks giving him a .353 OBP in that span. There’s no power, unfortunately — all eight hits are singles. Hopefully the power will come soon.
Anyway, after Busch’s single, Swanson walked — for the third time! — re-loading the bases. Kingery flied to right to end the inning. If you’re counting, that’s the third time the Cubs left the bases loaded in this game.
The Cubs broke the game open in the seventh. Nico led off with his fourth home run of the year [VIDEO].
Bregman walked and Happ followed with a fly ball to right.
That brought up Suzuki, who had not hit much so far this year. In this at-bat, he absolutely crushed one — to Waveland! [VIDEO].