Cubs crush five homers, Imanaga shines in shutout win over Red Sox |
Dustin Riese
· · 14 hours ago
CHICAGO - Everyone knew that once the all-star break concluded, the first 12 games of the second half were going to be crucial for the Chicago Cubs (59-39). Not only do they have the streaking Milwaukee Brewers waiting in the wings, but they came out of the all-star break against the Boston Red Sox (53-47), who came into Wrigley Field riding a 10-game winning streak.
Not only did the Cubs end their winning streak on Friday, but they also secured a massive series win, thanks to another strong pitching performance from Shota Imanaga and five home runs, which helped them blow past the Red Sox 6-0. While the potent offense is one of the stories that will be discussed, Imanaga is the bigger story as he is finally starting to look like his 2024 self. After battling through some early-season command issues and then enduring a hamstring injury, it has taken Imanaga a while to round into form. However, if his past two starts are signs of what is to come, it does look like he is starting to round back into form, as Imanaga gave the Cubs seven impressive innings of one walk, five strikeout baseball. Pair that with what he did against the Yankees last weekend, and his previous two starts are about as vintage Imanaga as you can get. For the most part, the Cubs kept the Red Sox offense in check, but with Rob Refsnyder leading the game off with a double, only to have Imanaga battle back to retire the next three hitters to keep the Red Sox off the board. Apart from that, the scoring chances were limited as the Cubs made sure to bury the Red Sox before they could gain any momentum. It didn't take the Cubs long to grab the lead as the new leadoff hitter in Michael Busch connected for his second leadoff homer in a week to put the Cubs on top 1-0. Kyle Tucker followed that up with a solo shot as the Cubs opened the game with back-to-back jacks off Brayan Bello as the Red Sox right-hander was reeling. Had the Cubs not scored the rest of the way, this would've been enough to win this game, but given how potent the Red Sox offense has been, the Cubs knew they couldn't take their feet off the gas. That was especially true when you look at the top of the second as the Red Sox once again had the pressure on Imanaga as a pair of two-out singles from Masataka Yoshida and Abraham Toro set the Red Sox up, only to have Imanaga wiggle out of trouble again. Letting scoring chances like that get away against this Cubs team isn't a recipe for success, especially when the Cubs found ways to capitalize in other ways. Look no further than the bottom of the second, where a leadoff walk by Dansby Swanson, followed by a single from Nico Hoerner, set the Cubs offense up. This led to a Vidal Brujan sacrifice fly, pushing the Cubs' lead to 3-0. Those were the only runs Bello would allow the rest of the way, as the right-hander managed to battle through six innings, doing his best to keep things close. His big hurdle was watching Imanaga settle into one of his best grooves of the season, as he went on to retire 13 of 14 hitters entering the seventh, until a pair of two-out singles put an end to that and once again had the Red Sox on the verge of cutting into the deficit. Imanaga had other plans as he got Connor Wong to fly out to end the seventh as the Cubs maintained their 3-0 lead. From there, it was all Chicago as Matt Shaw, Pete Crow-Armstrong, and Ian Happ touched up the Red Sox pen for a trio of solo homers as they opened up a 6-0 lead entering the ninth. Ryan Brasier finished things off from there, scattering one hit and punching out two as the Cubs capped off a series win with a 6-0 shutout. Brad Keller was the only other Cubs reliever to see the field, and with him striking out the side to go with Brasier's two punchouts, the Cubs staff struck out 10 batters compared to one walk. Chicago had 11 hits in the game, including five multi-hit games as Busch, Tucker, Crow-Armstrong, Hoerner, and Shaw came up clutch. The Cubs will go for the sweep on Sunday when they send Cade Horton to the mound against All-Star lefty Garrett Crochet.
