A wave of grumbling around the Wrigley Field stands had swelled to a chorus of boos by the time right-handed reliever Nate Pearson finished his warmup pitches before the eighth inning. Cubs fans had realized that lefty Shota Imanaga wasn’t getting the chance to finish his no-hit bid.
It wasn’t until then that catcher Miguel Amaya, so focused on calling a dominant game, figured out that they had a no-hitter going. Imanaga himself was unaware until he left the game.
“[Manager Craig Counsell] came to talk to me, and usually he looks happy about telling me, ‘Good job,’ ” Imanaga said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “But he looked a little worried. And so I was figuring out what was going on, and that’s when I learned.”
By the final pitch, everyone was clued in. And the fans’ cheers rang out louder than their boos had just a couple innings before. In the 12-0 victory over the Pirates, Imanaga, Pearson and Porter Hodge completed just the second combined no-hitter in franchise history (also June 24, 2021, against the Dodgers).
It was the Cubs’ 18th no-hitter overall and their first at Wrigley since Milt Pappas’ no-no in 1972. Only one Cubs no-hitter has had a larger margin of victory (April 21, 2016, at the Reds, 16 runs).
“It feels so special to be a part of Cubs history,” Amaya said. “. . . It feels so special to do that with these guys, and especially in front of these fans.”
The Cubs’ offense provided an early lead and scored in every inning but the fourth and seventh. Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong were a triple short of the cycle — and Crow-Armstrong came within inches of logging that triple.
Imanaga flew through his outing. He faced the minimum in all but two of his seven innings. He issued two walks in the second and was unfazed in the sixth when third baseman Isaac Paredes committed two errors.
Pearson and Hodge watched Imanaga’s showing on TV in the bullpen. At one point, Hodge turned to give Pearson a knowing smile, assuming they were thinking the same thing. But he didn’t want to jinx the no-hitter by acknowledging it out loud. Pearson, it turned out, was just as unaware as Imanaga. His first hint came when he was greeted with boos.
By the time Imanaga was through the seventh, recording his seventh strikeout for the final out, he was up to 95 pitches.
“It’s always hard to do in that situation,” Counsell said of pulling Imanaga with his season workload at the top of mind. “But you’re taking care of Shota. It’s 100% about taking care of Shota and making sure we’re doing the right thing for him.”
Counsell and his coaching staff began orchestrating a shift change for most of their everyday players.
“They said, ‘Hey, you’re done,’ ” shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “I said, ‘No, I’m not.’ Kind of like, ‘Think about it.’ Can’t say it. ‘Think about it.’ ”
“I think at first they thought it was more for trying to get a triple. Man, I don’t know if I can run that far. It was more for the defensive stuff.”
Swanson had been a part of some close calls before but never a no-hitter.
Pearson retired all three batters he faced in the eighth. He said he was telling himself: “Just pump strikes, attack these guys, make your pitches, go one pitch at a time, don’t get too far ahead of yourself.”
Then in the ninth, Hodge induced three straight groundouts to Swanson to end the game.
“Mixed emotions waiting for that ball to finally get out to the first baseman for the final out,” Hodge said. “It’s just so nerve wracking.”
First baseman Michael Busch squeezed his glove, and Hodge spread his arms to embrace Amaya, whose eyes had begun to well with tears.