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Imanaga dominates as Cubs walk it off in extras
Matt Marton - USA Today Sports

Imanaga dominates as Cubs walk it off in extras
by - Senior Writer - Sun Jul 21 17:24:50 GMT-05:00 2024

CHICAGO - There is no such thing as an ugly win in baseball, but Sunday was an ugly win for the Chicago Cubs (48-53). With wins hard to come by for this team, especially against the Arizona Diamondbacks (51-49), the Cubs will take them any way they can get them as they look to avoid another sell-off at the deadline.

Trailing 1-0 entering the ninth, the Cubs mounted a late-game rally as the Seiya Suzuki single off of Justin Martinez brought things back to even and helped force extra innings. That was only the beginning for the Cubs as a perfectly placed bunt from Miguel Amaya loaded the bases with outs before Nico Hoerner worked a bases-loaded walk to push in the winning run as the Cubs walked off the Diamondbacks 2-1 at Wrigley Field.

This was a win this team desperately needed, especially when you look at how Shota Imanaga pitched. Not only did he strike out the side in the first, but the first four outs he recorded all came via the strikeout as he was as locked in as he had been all season.

Imanaga finished his outing with a career-high 10 punchouts across seven innings and even took a no-hitter into the sixth inning.

“He’s lived up to what everybody's been talking about,” Cubs legend Jon Lester said during the Marquee Sports Network broadcast. “The Cubs got somebody special. As long as he stays healthy and keeps pitching for them, I think the sky's the limit for him.”

Hits were equally tough to come by against Brandon Pfaadt, who also pitched seven shutout innings, allowing just one hit and striking out seven. That hit came on a second-inning infield single from Christopher Morel before Pfaadt settled in to retire the next 14 hitters he faced. Had it not been for a controversial hit by a pitch in the second and tough at-bat leading to a walk in the fourth, Imanaga would've had a perfect game heading into the fifth as the Diamondbacks couldn't touch him on the mound.

With neither team being able to score through five innings, the attention turned back to Imanaga, who was looking to keep his no-hitter going. He managed to do that three batters into the sixth until Randal Grichuk took a splitter up the middle for the Diamondbacks first hit of the game and ended Imanaga's impressive run. That was followed by a long fly ball to right field, where Mike Tauchman was there to catch it inches in front of the wall to keep things scoreless.

Not only did Imanaga see his no-hitter end in the sixth, but he also saw his shutout come to an end in the seventh as he made one mistake during his seven-inning start. Unfortunately for him, that mistake was a fastball left center cut to Eugenio Suarez, who deposited it onto Waveland Avenue to put the Diamondbacks in front 1-0. That would be the only run of the game for Arizona, but with the Cubs only having one hit through six innings, one run looked like it would be enough.

In desperate need of a break, a leadoff walk by Michael Busch to begin the seventh ended Pfaadt's streak of consecutive batters retired, which he ran to 14 straight. Two batters later, it looked as if the Cubs were going to get the break they needed, as a check swing grounder from Ian Happ looked to be an infield single, only to have Instant Replay overturn the call. Busch did move up to second on that play, but the Cubs couldn't bring him in as Morel struck out to end the threat, putting the ball in the hands of the bullpen.

Say what you want about the Cubs' struggles in the pen this season, but they have been lights out since June 27. Their 1.37 ERA is the lowest in baseball by nearly an entire run. With Mark Leiter Jr. and Porter Hodge retiring all six hitters they faced with four strikeouts, they continued to pitch well as the Cubs were down to their final three outs and trailing by one.

That is when the game changed as the Diamondbacks back end of the pen was unavailable leaving the young Martinez in to pick up the save. All it took to jumpstart the Cubs offense was a leadoff double from Hoerner before advancing to third on the Busch grounder. One pitch later, Suzuki came through and jumped on a first-pitch fastball and ripped up the middle, and the Cubs battled back to tie things up 1-1.

Happ followed that up with a walk to move the winning run to second, but the Diamondbacks managed to get out of trouble, as a pair of groundouts sent the game to extras. In the extra frame, Hector Neris got the call for the Cubs. Despite walking the second hitter he faced, he was able to keep Arizona off the board, giving the Cubs' offense a chance to make something happen late.

This was one of those chances where the Cubs wouldn't fail, as Dansby Swanson was intentionally walked to start the inning, setting up a double play chance with Amaya coming to bat. Usually, this would be an ideal double-play candidate, but Amaya outsmarted the Diamondbacks defense by dropping down a perfect bunt to third and legged it out for an infield single to load the bases with no outs.

Following a Pete Crow-Armstrong flyout, Hoerner came to bat looking to deliver a big moment. Although it wasn't a hit, Hoerner still had his moment as he worked a bases-loaded walk to bring in Mike Tauchman and lift the Cubs to the 2-1 walk-off win.

“All of them right now seem important,” Dansby Swanson said after the win. “I think it was huge for us to be able to battle back after a couple days of probably not playing our best and to be able to come out with one and moving into another big series is key for everyone.”

Hits were tough to come by in this game, as the Cubs were held to four hits and Arizona just two, as Hoerner, Amaya, Morel, and Suzuki had those hits.

Chicago will now open their final series of the season against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday as they need to take this series. Javier Assad is set to get the start as he will face Tobias Myers.

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