How Cubs’ Shota Imanaga dominated Phillies for 2nd time in a week, in totally different way

Shota Imanaga was electric in the Chicago Cubs’ 7-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday. It was his second start against Philadelphia in a seven-day stretch, and Imanaga proved to be dominant in both outings.

On Wednesday, April 15, the 32-year-old left-hander whooped the Phillies, recording 11 strikeouts while allowing just three hits, a walk, and an earned run through six innings pitched, leading the Cubs to an 11-2 victory. That’s much different than Tuesday’s performance, where Imanagag recorded just one strikeout, but still only allowed three hits, a walk, and one earned run through seven innings pitched.

Imanaga seemingly switched his strategy up after dominating the Phillies with his sinker in his first matchup against the team, according to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. Instead, the three-year MLB veteran relied more on his fastball and generated more weak contact than strikeouts in his second outing against the Phillies.

“Shota Imanaga overpowered the Phillies in his previous start, piling up strikeouts and missing bats at a rapid rate,” said Bastian. “The Cubs’ lefty was tasked with facing the same lineup on Tuesday night, but he quickly felt that his signature splitter was not operating as sharply as usual…

“Imanaga gave the Cubs seven innings and limited the damage to one solo home run off the bat of slugger Kyle Schwarber,” continued Bastian. “Without his splitter working as well as he hoped, Imanaga ended with only one strikeout. He leaned heavily on his fastball and induced weak contact all night long to continue his stellar start to the season.”

Cubs manager Craig Counsell was ultimately impressed with Imanaga’s past two starts, per Bastian. Counsell claimed that the Japanese native showed signs of being a “really good pitcher,” helping lead Chicago to two wins while on the mound.

“The sign of a really good pitcher,” said Counsell. “It’s not easy facing that team again two starts in a row. He pitched really, really well.”

Shota Imanaga is on pace for a monster campaign. In five starts (leads the NL), the one-time All-Star owns a 2.17 ERA and leads MLB with a 0.724 WHIP while totaling 32 strikeouts through 29.0 innings pitched. His next expected start is on April 26 when the Cubs take on the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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