Shota Imanaga didn’t know why Craig Counsell looked a little “worried” when he approached him after the top of the seventh inning of Wednesday night.
Imanaga figured it would be a standard conversation, with Counsell congratulating him on seven brilliant innings and letting him know the bullpen would take it from there against the Pirates.
The Japanese rookie didn’t realize, though, just how dominant he had been on the mound and that Pittsburgh had actually yet to record a hit off him.
“So after I finished the seventh inning, I went seven, no earned runs,” Imanaga said through an interpreter. “So, Craig came to talk to me. Usually, he looks at me and tells me, ‘Good job.’ But he looked a little worried, and so I was figuring out what was going on and that’s when I learned.”
Counsell had some nerves since it’s not easy to pull a starter from a potential no-hitter, especially when Imanaga had only thrown 95 pitches.
Yet he made that call with the future in mind, and two relievers finished the job to record the Cubs’ 18th no-hitter and the first since 2021 in the 12-0 win.
Some fans booed when they learned of Imanaga’s departure, .
“It’s always hard to do in that situation, but you’re taking care of Shota,” Counsell said. “It’s 100 percent about taking care of Shota and making sure we’re doing the right thing for him. It’s not fun to do, but when you’re prioritizing the player’s health … and you don’t know what’s going to happen moving forward. We want him to stay healthy. He’s at a career-high in innings and doing a great job. He actually didn’t know he had a no-hitter going at all, which is funny. [Pitching coach] Tommy [Hottovy] and I talked about it, we considered it frankly after the sixth inning, but that, for us, was the right thing to do.”
There are some no-hitters where a pitcher is so wild (think A.J. Burnett and his nine walks) or just so ordinary (think Chris Heston versus the Mets in 2015) that the shot at history may be overlooked in the moment, but Imanga had walked only two batters while striking out seven.
Another two batters reached on errors in those seven frames, which perhaps contributed to the confusion, but there is usually a buzz in the stadium as the remaining outs starts getting closer to zero.
Counsell would have been well within his right to let the 30-year-old continue since he hadn’t even reached 100 pitches, but the Cubs have been cautious with the southpaw this year.
Imanaga has only topped 100 pitches three times in 26 starts this season and last did so July 10.
Managers sometimes fear deep counts adding unnecessary pitches, although the argument could be made that Imanaga could have at least started the inning since the Cubs led, 11-0.
Counsell did not need to worry about whether a reliever entered with a man on base.
Imanaga is now up to 153 ⅓ innings with several starts left.
“When Craig came to talk to me, he mentioned the next outing, the outing after that, how it’s important to make sure you’re ready,” Imanaga said through a translator. “And for me too, it’s really important for me to stay healthy for the whole season, throw all my innings, make my starts. He told me might be, it’s time to switch pitchers. I just trusted his judgment and I went with it.”
