ST. LOUIS — Chicago Cubs pitchers Ben Brown and Hayden Wesneski were excited Friday night to sit back at Busch Stadium and watch rookie teammate Shota Imanaga do his thing.
Imanaga has gone from being a promising starter to a ‘What can he do next?’ guy, putting up numbers no one dreamed of when he signed a four-year, $53 million deal over the winter.
“Fearless attack,” Brown said. “He knows exactly what he needs to do, what he needs to take care of. It’s really impressive. We’re seeing greatness with him in everything he does. It’s sick.”
Imanaga entered the rain-delayed series opener Friday against the St. Louis Cardinals with an 0.84 ERA, the lowest of any pitcher over his first nine career starts and the fourth-lowest of any starter in his first nine starts to any season, trailing only Jacob deGrom (0.61 in 2021), Juan Marichal (0.69 in 1966) and Zack Greinke (0.82 in 2015).
“It’s getting ridiculous,” Wesneski said. “It’s so cool to watch. At this point you just assume he’s going to do it all year. I hope it’s true, but it’s a long year. Even his bad outings are good, which is something Javy (Assad) does really well too.
“That’s what aces are made of. What Shota has done is incredible, and we have a front-row view of it right now.”
The bullpenization of baseball has changed the game so much over the last decade that it’s difficult to know who are the next great starters. Even the top starters usually are gone by the seventh inning after giving up a run or two and might not even figure in the decision.
But Imanaga, who was nicknamed “The Throwing Philosopher” in Japan, has stood out from his peers for his ability to dominate and keep his pitch count low enough to last longer than many of his peers. He came into Friday’s game having thrown seven innings in three of his last four starts, allowing only two earned runs in 26 innings in May with 30 strikeouts and six walks. He has thrown more than 100 pitches only once — a 102-pitch start against the San Diego Padres on May 7.
When he takes the mound, it feels like something big might happen. Cubs manager Craig Counsell, who played with Randy Johnson in Arizona when the “Big Unit” was a dominating presence every time he took the ball, said it’s good not only for Cubs fans but for baseball.
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“The game has talked a little about reemphasizing starting pitching, and they’re talking about people like this and how it can be exciting on the days that he pitches,” Counsell said. “And it feels like that for sure. The 1-0 games that you win, you just don’t expect that to happen. And it’s happened a couple times already (in starts against the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates), and it’s a testament of how good a pitcher has to be to win a game like that.
“It is exciting. You feel like you’re going to see something really cool when Shota pitches. That’s the feeling you got when a guy like Randy pitched.”
Imanaga’s control has been incomprehensible. His nine walks through nine career starts are the lowest of any Cubs pitcher since 1901, while his 58 strikeouts are the third most of any Cub in his first nine starts behind Kerry Wood (85 in 1998) and Mark Prior (65 in 2002).
Center fielder Cody Bellinger saw this kind of excellence from former Los Angeles Dodgers teammate Clayton Kershaw.
“When you take a deep dive into the numbers, it’s like ‘Wow,’ you know what I mean?” Bellinger said. “We all recognize that, and it’s truly incredible. He’s done such a tremendous job. Just an amazing dude and great to have in the clubhouse.”
While the rest of the world learns his name, Imanaga has made it a point to get to know his teammates better by learning the language.
“Shota does a really good job learning English, probably much better than we could do learning Japanese,” Brown said. “Every day he comes into the clubhouse knowing just a little bit more. He’s a joy to be around.”
One of Imanaga’s first big moments came during his introductory news conference in January when he sang one of the lyrics from “Go, Cubs, Go,” the Steve Goodman-penned theme song from the 1980s. Imanaga seems to enjoy making people laugh as much as he does pitching.
“He’s good at a lot of things,” Counsell said. “He’s really good at that part as well, being interesting and entertaining and giving thoughtful answers. It’s just a credit to who he is as a person and it says he’s curious.
“I think we learned that when he spoke to the media for the first time. He’s got a gift for this, or maybe it’s a talent he’s worked on. He gets it. It’s not that easy. He’s making it look easier than it really is.”
The Cubs need to wake up offensively to avoid wasting such a special season from one of their starters. Jake Arrieta’s historic performance in 2015 was rewarded with a postseason run, and Wood’s sensational rookie season in 1998 led to a wild-card berth.
Counsell still believes in the offense and said “good hitters and good teams go through stretches like this.” As for the evolving rotation picture with Kyle Hendricks sent to the bullpen, Counsell has not named his starter for Sunday night’s game or for the upcoming Brewers series in Milwaukee. Assad was on schedule for Sunday, but it’s listed as TBA.
Brown’s four shutout innings Thursday merited another start, Counsell said, but the manager didn’t know when that would be.
“We’ve got some time until that happens,” he said. “And we’ve had to make changes on the fly there.”