Imanaga went out to Great American Ball Park on Friday night and gave the Cubs exactly what they needed: 5 innings, 1 earned run, 5 strikeouts. The only blemish on his line was a solo shot, and even that one was a legitimately nasty piece of hitting from Elly De La Cruz. Everything else was quiet, professional, the kind of start that's supposed to set a team up to win.
De La Cruz's fifth-inning solo homer left the bat at 108.5 mph and traveled 400 feet, the only run Imanaga allowed all night.
That De La Cruz blast put the Reds up 1-0 in the fifth, and for a while it looked like the kind of game Imanaga has made a habit of pitching in — one bad pitch, otherwise lights out. That's been the story of his season: he's given up plenty of home runs overall, but he's also kept the Cubs in games he has no business losing. Friday was another one of those nights, at least through 5.
Then the bullpen happened. Cincinnati tacked on 3 more runs, including a home run from JJ Bleday, en route to a 4-0 win in front of 30,878 fans. Chicago's offense never got anything going against Reds starter Hunter Greene, who racked up 12 strikeouts, but the final score tells the real story: a quality start turned into a shutout loss because the middle relief couldn't hold a 1-run deficit from getting worse.
Cubs middle bullpen wastes another quality start from Shota Imanaga
This is becoming a recurring theme for a Cubs team that's supposed to be pushing for a division race. Imanaga has quietly turned into one of the most reliable arms in that rotation, and outings like this one — where he keeps the other lineup to a single run on the road — are exactly the kind of starts that are supposed to translate into wins. Instead, the bullpen keeps handing the ball back to the offense in worse shape than it found it.
For a Cubs front office staring down the trade deadline, nights like Friday are a pretty loud signal. It's one thing to lose because the bats went cold against a guy striking out 12; it's another to watch a 1-0 game with 5 innings left in the tank turn into a laugher because the relief corps can't get outs. If Chicago wants to make the summer moves count, bullpen help has to be at the top of the list.