ST. LOUIS — Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga caught up Wednesday with Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar, his World Baseball Classic teammate with Japan, before the third game of the series between their teams.
Nootbaar had been a thorn in the Cubs’ side in back-to-back losses, blasting two-run home runs for the Cardinals in each game. Imanaga is scheduled to return from the 15-day injured list to start Thursday.
‘‘I was just telling him, ‘OK, when I face you, I’m going to keep you hitless,’ ’’ Imanaga said through an interpreter.
The Cubs, who entered the game with five losses in their last six games, could use a boost from Imanaga’s return. He has been out since early May with a strained left hamstring.
Though the Cubs have done an admirable job of weathering Imanaga’s absence, especially considering that it came on the heels of left-hander Justin Steele’s season-ending elbow surgery, the Cardinals’ seven homers in the first two games of the series were a glaring issue.
Imanaga built up to 4⅓ innings and 72 pitches in his last rehab start for Triple-A Iowa. He said he was working on his fastball command, as well as making sure his arm followed the same path on his secondary pitches as it did with the fastball.
‘‘It wasn’t an injury with the shoulder or the elbow, so I was able to throw throughout the whole process,’’ Imanaga said. ‘‘And that good feeling that I had before the injury, that’s still there, and I was able to maintain that. So looking forward to [Thursday].’’
Imanaga had a 2.82 ERA in eight starts before landing on the IL.
Hoerner homers
Hitting homers isn’t at the ‘‘heart of’’ second baseman Nico Hoerner’s offensive game, as he put it. That would be contact hitting. But he was aware of how long it had been since he had put a ball over the fence.
That streak ended in the Cubs’ 8-7 loss Tuesday when his first homer of the season in the sixth inning cut their deficit to a run.
‘‘It is something I can do,’’ Hoerner said Wednesday. ‘‘And, like [the] game [Tuesday], it’s something that can really change games around. Two-, three-run homers change the landscape of games, for sure. So it felt good to impact a close game.’’
Hoerner also singled twice and had a stolen base.
‘‘Nico’s having a nice offensive season,’’ manager Craig Counsell said. ‘‘And sometimes when you’re just in a good place — and he had a good night [Tuesday] — he gets the ball in the air, it’s kind of a matter of time.’’
Supporting PCA
Counsell revealed on 670 The Score that he sent Pete Crow-Armstrong a text message late Tuesday to check in after the standout center fielder made a costly mental mistake that led to a Cardinals run.
‘‘It’s just the right thing to do,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘Simple as that. . . . We make mistakes in the game. Sometimes we are harder on ourselves when we make mental mistakes than physical mistakes. And we probably get more criticism when we make mental mistakes than when we make physical mistakes. They’re each mistakes. That’s it. We all make them.’’