Shota Imanaga is human.
After a historic start to his MLB career, the Chicago Cubs rookie pitcher was roughed up by the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night. Imanaga allowed seven earned runs to Milwaukee in a truncated game that lasted just 4 1/3 innings. The Brewers prevailed 10-6.
Christian Yelich got the Brewers’ party started with a 441-foot first-pitch home run to give Milwaukee a 2-1 lead.
Imanaga went through the rest of the first and second rounds unscathed. But the Brewers struck in the third. With runners on the corners, Will Adames drove a one-out run to center field. Gary Sánchez then scored Yelich and Adames with a double to left field.
Blake Perkins then sent in an 82 mph splitter on the first pitch that hovered over the plate over the left field wall, scoring two runs and extending Milwaukee’s lead to 7-1.
The seven runs earned in three innings more than doubled the five allowed by Imanaga in 53.2 innings over his previous nine starts.
The damage against Imanaga was done. He went through a 1-2-3 fourth inning, then was pulled by manager Craig Counsell when he issued a walk to Adames in the fifth. The Brewers added three more runs off the Cubs’ relievers en route to a 10-6 victory.
Imanaga finished the game allowing seven earned runs on eight hits, two home runs and one walk. He recorded a single strikeout.
The good news is that his season-long ERA is still remarkable. Even with the bloated tour, his ERA through 58 innings sits at 1.86. This is due to a 0.84 ERA that was the lowest in MLB history through the first nine starts of a player’s career.
