Shota Imanaga pitched seven solid innings in his sixth straight win, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 5-0 victory over the Washington Nationals on Sunday.
Imanaga (15-3) received support from home runs by Mike Tauchman, Michael Busch, and Miguel Amaya. The left-handed pitcher from Japan gave up six hits, struck out four batters, and didn’t walk anyone, showing strong performance as he wraps up his first season in the majors.
“He did a good job with that heater kind of up and away to them,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Pretty simple game plan and he executed it very well.”
The game started 2 hours and 20 minutes late due to rain. The crowd of 30,086 at Wrigley Field passed the time by watching much of the Bears’ 21-16 loss at Indianapolis on the big screen in left-center.
“Today I kept in mind … that there is a possibility it might continue to rain and there might be a delay,” Imanaga said through a translator. “So just keeping that in mind and not getting swayed too much with how the environment is around me and just focusing on the game.”
The Cubs (80-76), who were eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday, won three out of four games in the series. They finished with a 6-1 record against the Nationals this season.
James Wood and José Tena each had two of Washington’s eight hits. Jake Irvin (10-13) gave up five runs and four hits in four innings.
The Nationals (69-87) ended their trip with a 1-6 record and finished their road games with a 33-48 record.
“We just couldn’t drive in any runs,” manager Dave Martinez said. “The biggest thing is, we got to get better in driving in runs, attacking the strike zone, staying in the strike zone. We just start chasing.”
Tauchman got the Cubs going early when he hit a 2-0 fastball from Irvin off the bottom of the scoreboard in right field for a leadoff home run in the first inning. It was Tauchman’s seventh homer of the season.
