To make the Cubs’ 5-4 win Wednesday against the Guardians possible, left-hander Shota Imanaga rebounded from giving up three home runs to put together a solid second start back from the injured list.
Imanaga held the Guardians to four hits in 5 ⅓ innings, but all but one flew over the fence. All three homers came on fastballs too close to the middle of the plate.
After a quick first inning, Imanga surrendered back-to-back solo homers to Carlos Santana and Lane Thomas to open the second. Then he hit Nolan Jones with a fastball. But Imanaga quickly reigned in his command to retire the next three batters.
In an otherwise clean third inning, Imanaga allowed a solo homer to David Fry.
The Cubs offense responded with five runs in the third and fourth innings combined, all driven in by the heart of the batting order.
Designated hitter Seiya Suzuki, batting third, got the scoring started by lining an RBI double off the left-field wall.
Then Pete Crow-Armstrong, with runners on second and third, hit a chopper to Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio. Without a play at first on speedy Crow-Armstrong, Rocchio held the ball as the Cubs brought another run across the plate.
The next inning, Suzuki drilled a sinker into the ground. The sharp ground ball took a high hop over a diving Rocchio to push across two more runs.
Then Crow-Armstrong, showered by the crowd with “P-C-A” chants, hit an RBI triple that caromed off the curve in the right-field wall. His momentum carried him around third base, where he was tagged out to end the inning, but the damage had been done.
The Guardians cut the Cubs’ lead to one run in the ninth inning with Steven Kwan’s sacrifice fly off Cubs closer Daniel Palencia. But the flame-throwing right-hander successfully navigated traffic to his 10th save of the season.
Advice for PCA
Crow-Armstrong has plenty of teammates he can lean on for advice about how to approach his first All-Star Game. MLB announced Wednesday that he and Cubs right fielder Kyle Tucker were selected to the National League starting lineup.
Two of those teammates with All-Star experience play on either side of him.
“You want to go out there and play well and do all that stuff, but you might as well enjoy it,” Tucker said in a recent conversation with the Sun-Times. “You don’t know how many times you’re going to be an All-Star, or have that opportunity to be in the same clubhouse and on the same roster and lineup as guys around the league. And it only happens once a year. So, the biggest thing is just enjoy it, have fun with it, and come out of the game healthy for the second half.”
Said left fielder Ian Happ: “You get to be on that stage, with those guys, and representing the Cubs – just soak in every second of it. It goes fast, but it’s a really cool experience.”
Injury update
Right-hander Javier Assad (strained left oblique) came out of a bullpen Tuesday without issue, manager Craig Counsell said. It was Assad’s second bullpen. He’s scheduled to throw “a couple more bullpens” before progressing to throwing live batting practice.
Catcher Miguel Amaya (strained left oblique) won’t return from the IL until after the All-Star break, Counsell said. Amaya has been cleared for hitting and throwing activities but is “not close” to game action.
“This is the severity of the injury,” Counsell said.