MIAMI – Friday was a good night for Shota Imanaga.
His six innings of one-run ball looked to be exactly what the Cubs needed from their lefty starter after back-to-back rougher performances.
Those outings – a quick hook after two innings two weekends ago against the Mariners and a loss to the Reds last weekend in which he allowed three homers – couldn’t help but bring to mind Imanaga’s struggles down the stretch last season, when he had a 6.51 ERA and gave up 10 homers in five September starts.
“Building trust is kind of like dominos or Jenga,” Imanaga said through an interpreter Friday night, “where it takes time and it’s hard to build up, but in an instant it can disappear.
“I want to slowly build that trust back up and be that pitcher that everyone can trust.”
While frustrated fans have lamented Imanaga’s big home-run total – he didn’t allow any Friday but entered Saturday baseball’s co-leader with 33 surrendered – the Cubs have never vocalized any lack of confidence in the left-hander, and they saw Friday as the norm.
“I think maybe the story around Shota is a little incorrect,” manager Craig Counsell said Saturday. “We’re 7-2 in games he’s pitched since the All-Star break. He has an ERA [of 3.35] since the All-Star break.
“I think Shota sometimes is, frankly, held to a higher standard than everybody else. I’m not sure why. Guys give up runs. They give up runs. And maybe because of how it happens for Shota, it’s a little different?
“But Shota’s having a good season. He’s having a really good second half. And if you look at it in totality, that’s what it shows you.”
Though Imanaga’s season ERA is nearly 4.00, he could find himself with major league career highs in innings pitched and strikeouts.
A season has ups and downs for nearly all players, and Imanaga has been no exception. He had a terrific 2.32 ERA in his first nine starts this year before a particularly nasty stretch of four outings in which he allowed 26 runs and a dozen homers.
But that was followed by 10 great ones, during which he had a tiny 2.06 ERA. Then he had a 7.13 ERA in four starts. Then Friday night.
That lack of consistency is relative, of course, and more obvious and more troubling cases of whiplash are easy to find.
But it strikes as perhaps the sort of thing team president Jed Hoyer was talking about last week, when he lauded the Cubs’ position-player group but cited the need for more consistent performances from the pitching staff.
Imanaga was more consistent last season before his September struggles, with a 3.24 ERA in a dozen starts after returning from the injured list, a number that was a wildly more impressive 0.91 if you remove his one seven-run clunker against the White Sox.
But then those troubles started, and by the time the playoffs rolled around, the issues he ran into in the regular season’s final month and the three homers he surrendered in a pair of postseason outings added up to the Cubs deciding against using him on regular rest in Game 5 of the NLDS, the final game of their season.
So might Friday’s bounce back mean a little more than just another round of ebbs and flows in Imanaga’s campaign?
“Any time you have consecutive starts that weren’t your best,” Counsell said, “you want the confidence and you want the feedback that says, ‘I got it.’
“And maybe the timing of the season is a little bit real for Shota, in terms of last year, he experienced a little downturn at the end of the season.
“From a confidence perspective, for Shota, it was important.”
Imanaga is just one piece of the Cubs’ starting-pitching puzzle, of course.
Trade-deadline additions Clay Holmes and Kevin Gausman have been excellent. And lefty Matthew Boyd has had a couple good outings in a row after a slight hiccup.
“We’re in good shape,” Counsell said. “We’ve got five guys we’re eager to give the ball to and comfortable giving the ball to. And they’re performing. We sit in a good spot, in terms of the rest of the regular season.”