7 innings of no-hitter 7K power! 日Ace Imana returns to the ERA 2-point range...NL Rookie of the Year "I'm here too"
Sep 05, 2024
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Imanaga started the home game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field on the 5th (Korea time), giving up only two walks in seven innings and blocking them scoreless. He struck out seven.
Imana, who played a hitless and scoreless game for the first time since his Major League debut, marked a 2.99 ERA and lowered it to two points in about a month since Aug. 1. He threw 153 ⅓ innings, gave up 131 hits and 25 walks, struck out 155, and marked WHIP 1.02 and a hit rate of 0.223.
He ranks fourth in the National League (NL) ERA and fourth in the WHIP, and is confidently No. 1 with a 6.09 ratio of walks to strikeouts. The NL Rookie of the Year competition has been in the form of a two-way race between San Diego Padres outfielder Jackson Merrill and Pittsburgh young gun fireballer Paul Skins, but Imanaga's momentum cannot be ignored now.
Imana finished the inning by catching Nick Gonzalez with a shortstop double play when Brian Reynolds went out with a throwing error by third baseman Isaac Paredes after one out in the top of the first inning.
In the second inning with a 1-0 lead, he allowed two walks, but he turned it over without losing a point by controlling his starting speed. Imanaga, who walked Connor Joe after one out and Jared Triolo after two out, handled Michael A Taylor on a fly to left field with an 82.3 mile splitter.
From the third inning onwards, the three-and-out parade continued. Imanaga, who struck out Henry Davis with a swing and miss in the third inning with a 4-0 lead, overpowered Isaiah Kiner-Falefa with a fly ball to left field and Reynolds with a fly ball to right field, respectively.
In the fourth inning, when the score gap widened to 7-0, Gonzalez, O'Neill Cruz and Joe were lightly silenced with 13 balls.
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In the sixth inning, when the game was 9-0 up, Kiner-Falefa was induced to ground out after one out, but third baseman Paredes' throwing error came out. However, he struck out Reynolds with a 91.3-mile fastball and escaped the crisis by striking out Cruz with an 89.6-mile sinker when Gonzalez got on base again due to Paredes' defensive error and was on first and second bases with two outs.
In the seventh inning with an 11-0 lead, he caught Joe and Brian Deracruz and struck out Triolo with a 91.1-mile outside fastball from the full count to end the inning.
Imanaga was replaced in the eighth inning with an 11-0 lead.
The Cubs added three more runs in the bottom of the second inning with Pete Crow-Armstrong's double and Ian Hep's timely hit to widen the gap to 4-0 in the third inning, followed by Dansby Swanson's two-run homer and Crow-Armstrong's solo homer to run 7-0. In the fifth inning, Swanson and Crow-Amstro added two more runs with timely hits to win the game. In the sixth inning, Cody Bellinger fired a wedge two-run shot.
jhno@sportschosun.com
