Chicago Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga entered Friday night’s game against the New York Mets sporting a 7-1 record and a 1.89 ERA. He had largely avoided a “welcome to MLB” moment this season, but all that changed quickly.
Imanaga was hammered in front of the hometown crowd, surrendering 11 hits and three home runs and allowing 10 runs over three innings pitched. As a result, his ERA skyrocketed.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters after the victory that they had a very specific game plan for Imanaga going into the night and carried it out to near perfection.
“We took [Imanaga’s] heater away,” Mendoza said via the New York Post. “We were ready for the fastball, and when we got pitches in the zone, especially with the fastball, we were ready to go. … One through nine, I thought the approach was great because we were ready for his fastball.”
Imanaga concurred.
“They were ready for the fastball and ready for the breaking balls in the zone,” Imanaga said via the Chicago Sun-Times. “I made an adjustment toward that, but they made another adjustment on top of that. So I think moving forward I just need to keep making those adjustments.”
Imanaga will attempt to bounce back on Wednesday, June 26, against the San Francisco Giants.
