Bears News: Imanaga pitches another gem, Happ clutch in win over Mets
Brad Penner - USA Today Sports

Bears News: Imanaga pitches another gem, Happ clutch in win over Mets
by - Senior Writer - Thu May 02 07:27:54 GMT-04:00 2024

QUEENS - When the Chicago Cubs (19-12) offense is hot, it seems like everyone is hitting, but when they go cold, everyone goes cold. That is the case right now for this team, as virtually no one apart from Mike Tauchman is hitting.

For the most part, they have been able to get away with not scoring runs as their starting pitching has stepped up when they needed it most. That was again the case Wednesday at Citi Field against the New York Mets (15-15), when the Cubs sent Shota Imanaga to the mound against Jose Butto.

When you talk about pitchers who should be involved in the rookie of the month conversations, Imanaga comes to mind. He capped off a perfect April with seven shutout innings in this one, lowering his season ERA to an MLB-leading 0.78. He walked one and struck out seven, continuing to make things look easy.

Butto was equally as good, striking out six in six innings and allowing just one run as the Cubs took a 1-0 lead into the ninth. With Hector Neris on to close things out, JD Martinez came inches away from a walkoff homer as he had to settle for a double to put runners on second and third and one out. Inches was the theme for the bottom of the ninth, as Jeff McNeil flew out to Ian Happ and Pete Alonso came home for what looked to be the tying run. Instead, it was a perfect relay throw from Happ to Nick Madrigal to Miguel Amaya that nailed Alonso at home as the Cubs ended the game with an unconventional double play to pick up the 1-0 win.

That play was reviewed, but after not finding enough evidence to overturn it, the Cubs were given the win as these are the games they would've lost a season ago. The Cubs haven't had many scoring chances on this road trip, but the ones they have had haven't mounted to much. After a leadoff Nico Hoerner double and the Mike Tauchman walk, the Cubs' offense was in business, only to come away empty.

The same can be said for the Mets, who failed to score in the first for the first time in this series and started to mount a rally of their own in the second. A one-out walk from Martinez helped start that with a McNeil single following to put two runners on. Imanaga bounced back to pitch out of trouble, as he has been nothing short of dominant in his six starts this season.

Across the next three innings, neither team could get much of anything going offensively, until a leadoff double from Matt Mervis in the fifth set the Cubs up. Two batters later, another rookie, Pete Crow-Armstrong, cashed in as his sacrifice fly broke the scoreless drought to give the Cubs a 1-0.

Little did anyone know that this would be the lone run of the game for the Cubs and the only one they would need.

One of the strengths of this Mets team has been their bullpen, which isn't something you can say for the Cubs. With Imanaga out of the game after seven and the bullpen coming in, this one was far from over as Mark Leiter Jr took the ball for the eighth. Leiter has been the Cubs best pitcher out of the pen this season, but after allowing a one-out single to Brett Baty followed by a JD Stewart walk, it was the Mets threatening as Craig Counsell went back to his pen and brought in Yency Almonte.

Almonte has battled back from a rough start to the season and has now found himself trusted in higher-leverage situations. This was about as high leverage as you can get, and it was Almonte standing strong as he struck out both hitters he faced to get the game to the ninth.

With Sean Reid-Foley making quick work of the Cubs in the top half of the ninth, the pressure was on Neris to lock things down.

Despite his 3.47 ERA and team-leading five saves, nothing has come easy for Neris as he has walked more than he has struck out while also allowing tons of hard contact. Both came into play again as Alonso was hit by a pitch with one out while Martinez connected for a double to put runners on second and third. Martinez narrowly missed a homer on his double, but with him representing the winning run, all it would take would be a base hit to get the job done.

Focussing on tying the game first, McNeil appeared to do his job as he drove one to Happ in left for the second out while Alonso tagged up and went home. Happ threw to Madrigal, who then fired a strike to home to complete the game-ending double play to lift the Cubs to a 1-0 win. Or they thought they won, as the Mets challenged not one aspect of the play, but two.

After there wasn't enough evidence to change the call, the result was finalized, with the Cubs picking up the 1-0 win.

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