Is there anything these days Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga can’t do?
Manager Craig Counsell was talking about how he ran out of position players the other day and that Imanaga had let it be known he would like the chance to hit if the opportunity ever presented itself.
No, he’s not secretly practicing in the indoor cages under Gallagher Way, waiting for that moment to come. But he had a pretty good notion of what he would do if it did.
‘‘I haven’t really been preparing to take swings,’’ Imanaga said through his translator. ‘‘But, you know, if I do step in the box, I know I’ll have three really good swings.’’
For now, the Cubs don’t need Imanaga’s bat, especially on a night they collected a dozen hits, drew 10 walks, had baserunners in every inning and delivered late thunder — home runs by Nico Hoerner and Seiya Suzuki — in a 7-4 victory Tuesday against the Phillies before 30,651 fans at Wrigley Field.
The victory was the Cubs’ seventh in a row, their longest winning streak since an eight-gamer in July 2023 and their first of seven or more games in April since 1989, when the ‘‘Boys of (Don) Zimmer’’ went to the National League playoffs.
And continuing a pattern that has held fast for the length of the streak, starting pitching was a critical component in the victory.
Imanaga (2-1) didn’t have the biting splitter he used to strike out a season-high 11 Phillies last week in Philadelphia. But with the guidance of catcher Carson Kelly, he found the right mix to go seven innings, his longest outing of the season. The only run he allowed was on former Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber’s blast into the right-field bleachers, and he yielded just three hits.
Imanaga walked one and struck out one, a sure indicator he wasn’t inducing whiffs at the rate he did last week, when the Phillies connected only with air on 26 of their swings.
But he still crafted a beauty, one that kept the Phillies at bay until the Cubs, who left 17 men on base, finally broke through.
Moises Ballesteros accounted for the first run in the fifth after a pinch-hit appearance in which he faced down Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering’s 98 mph heaters until he worked a bases-loaded walk on a full count.
After Schwarber tied the score with his 11th career homer against his former team in the sixth, Michael Busch blooped a two-run single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning before Hoerner and Suzuki went deep against Phillies reliever Tim Mayza in the seventh.
Suzuki’s homer, his first of the season, carried onto Waveland Avenue. The 441 feet it traveled on a windless night was the longest homer struck this season by the Cubs and the fourth-longest of his career.
‘‘I think the swing itself was really good,’’ said Suzuki, who is emerging from the slow start that followed a spring training curtailed by a hamstring injury.
But as satisfying as it was to see Suzuki leave the premises, Counsell said the starting pitching has been the story, not only Tuesday but throughout the winning streak.
‘‘Collectively, we did a really nice job offensively,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘I always say, let’s put pressure on the other team as many innings as we possibly can. And when you do that, something good is going to happen.
‘‘But I think the starting pitching has been the key to this. When you’re getting that deep into a game consistently — 6‰, seven innings, one run [allowed] each night — you’re putting your team in a really good position, right?’’
Right. And there’s no reason yet for Imanaga to grab a bat.