Game Recap: Imanaga leaves with injury in Cubs loss to Brewers

Michael Mcloone - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese - Senior Writer - 11 hours ago

MILWAUKEE - At some point, it would be nice to see the Chicago Cubs (21-14) pick up a Sunday victory, but anytime you can take two of three from the Milwaukee Brewers (17-18) in their building, it has to be considered a win. That is what the Cubs accomplished this weekend as they entered Sunday's game with a chance to Sweep the Brewers in front of another packed American Family Field crowd.

In what was expected to be another great pitching matchup between Aces Freddie Peralta and Shota Imanaga, this game lived up to the hype as neither pitcher allowed a single run through five innings. It was in the sixth when the Brewers offense came to life as they scored four times in that sixth inning, which was all the offense they would need in a 4-0 shutout win.

The loss is one thing, but watching Imanaga go down with another injury is what will be talked about as he left the game, grabbing his leg after trying to complete a double play. Imanaga left his last start with cramping in his legs, but this was the worst-case scenario as he has been diagnosed with a hamstring strain, making an IL stint soon coming.

With Justin Steele already done for the season, this was a loss the Cubs couldn't afford to take on, and now that it has happened, it will be interesting to see if the Cubs go with Chris Flexen or give another young arm in Cade Horton his opportunity. Given the success that Peralta has had against Ian Happ, Dansby Swanson, and Seiya Suzuki, you had a feeling runs would be at a premium, and that held true most of this one.

Milwaukee had a chance to strike early, with Isaac Collins and William Contreras picking up a pair of singles in the first before being turned away with no runs. Those were the only hits of the game for Milwaukee until the fourth, but Imanaga worked around all the threats that came his way. With things still tied 0-0 in the fifth, Pete Crow-Armstrong came through with a leadoff single and gave the Cubs the base runner they wanted.

Expected to try and stretch this into a double, Crow-Armstrong tried to steal a second only to be gunned down by the Contreras, who leads the MLB in caught stealing percentage. That was the only chance the Cubs had to put a runner in scoring position for most of the game, and it is hard to win when that happens. Following another scoreless inning from Peralta in the top of the sixth, Imanaga came back out for the Cubs and promptly allowed a leadoff single to Jackson Chourio as the Brewers had a runner on base.

After Contreras worked a walk to put a pair of runners on, this was the best scoring chance of the day since the first inning for either side as Christian Yelich came to bat. After making the perfect pitch for what looked to be a possible double play, Yelich managed to beat the throw to first, which is when Imanaga injured his hamstring trying to cover the base.

That put Craig Counsell and the Cubs pen in a rough spot as Julian Merryweather was forced to enter the game cold and had to get loose on the fly. Not long after entering the game, Merryweather uncorked a wild pitch that allowed the game-winning run to score as the Brewers took a 1-0 lead.

It only got worse from there as an intentional walk to Rhys Hoskins put a pair of runners on while Daz Cameron came through with a huge RBI hit to push the lead to 2-0. The biggest hit of the game came after Cameron stole second, with Caleb Durbin picking up a clutch RBI double to plate a pair as the Brewers opened up a 4-0 lead at this point.

Merryweather would get out of the inning without further damage, but the damage was already done as the Cubs faced a massive 4-0 deficit and only nine outs to work with. Still trailing by four in the ninth, Chicago had one last chance to rally, and it would have to come against the Brewers defacto closer Trevor Megill. All it took was a leadoff single from Happ to get things started as the Cubs had their first baserunner in several innings.

That was followed by a Kyle Tucker walk, who also had three hits, and suddenly, the Cubs had a pair of runners on and no outs. With Seiya Suzuki being the biggest batter up to this point, Megill fell behind once again before narrowly escaping a three-run homer as Suzuki came within feet of making this a 4-3 game. Megill would go on to strike out Michael Busch and Nico Hoerner to end the game as Milwaukee avoided the sweep 4-0.