DETROIT — Cubs right-hander Ben Brown came to love entering a game from the bullpen.
‘‘You hear the phone ring, you get going, all your guys are in there cheering you on,’’ he told the Sun-Times this week. ‘‘There’s a little bit of a difference, rather than preparing all day long to pitch once a week.’’
Brown is also motivated to hold on to his spot in the starting rotation, a role he’s just as passionate about.
‘‘I wish I could have both,’’ Brown said.
With an opener pitching before him last Saturday, Brown essentially did have both, and he put together his best appearance of the season. But in his start Friday against the Tigers, it was up to him to pull from the aggressive, reliever-like mentality that fed into his success within the confines of a more traditional plan.
Manager Craig Counsell said he considered going with an opener Friday, even after deciding to deploy left-hander Drew Pomeranz as an opener Thursday against the Nationals. But taking the schedule, the game Thursday and ‘‘maybe some things moving forward’’ into consideration, he opted against it.
‘‘Just locked in on every pitch,’’ Counsell said before the game of what he hoped Brown would carry over from his last outing. ‘‘No free pitches. And I thought he did a great job with that from [the first pitch] the other day at Wrigley.
‘‘Ben’s got good-enough stuff to do that. He’s got good-enough stuff to do it often. But when you get into bad counts, when you give up free bases, the traffic creates trouble. And sometimes they hit you, but let’s make them do that instead of the free pitches.’’
Brown rose to the challenge, limiting the Tigers to two runs and seven hits, striking out seven and walking one in seven innings while going toe-to-toe with 2024 American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal.
The Cubs lost 3-1, but Brown lowered his ERA to 5.37.
Imanaga’s next steps
Left-hander Shota Imanaga (strained left hamstring) recovered well after his live batting practice session Wednesday, pitching coach Tommy Hottovy told the Sun-Times on Thursday.
‘‘OK, checked that box,’’ Hottovy said. ‘‘Now let’s fine-tune some stuff. Let’s make sure the fastball shape’s the way we want it, the location’s where we want it, the mechanics are in a good spot.’’
Imanaga’s next step will be to repeat that workload in a game setting, naturally raising the intensity of each pitch.
With Imanaga building up at the team’s spring-training complex in Arizona, the Cubs can have him throw in the ballpark, which is rigged with biomechanical tracking technology.
‘‘Which is very important for a hamstring injury,’’ Hottovy said, ‘‘to make sure the stride is staying the same [and] he’s not overcompensating anywhere. It’s a big reason why throwing in Arizona is important. We can get a lot of data on him.’’
Season snapshot
The Cubs entered play Friday with the best record in the National League at 39-23. Only the Tigers (41-23) had a better record.
The Cubs’ plus-106 run differential was the best in the majors. The next-best mark was the Yankees’ plus-99.