1 week Ago
Shōta Imanaga continued an impressive start to his major league career by pitching one-run ball into the seventh inning to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 7-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Friday night. Signed to a $53 million, four-year deal during the offseason after spending his eight-year, professional career in Japan, the 30-year-old Imanaga (4-0) beat Boston right-hander Kutter Crawford in a matchup of two pitchers with impressive ERAs. Coming off a three-game sweep at Wrigley Field over the Astros, the Cubs rode a two-hit, two-RBI night by rookie Pete Crow-Armstrong for their fifth win in six games.
Patrick Wisdom added a pinch-hit, two-run double. Tyler O’Neill hit his eighth homer for the Red Sox, who fell to 3-8 in Fenway Park. Imanaga held Boston’s offense, which has struggled at home and came in hitting just .
198 in Fenway, to five hits with seven strikeouts and a walk over 6 1/3 innings, raising his ERA slightly to 0.98. Crow-Armstrong got his first MLB hit, a tiebreaking two-run homer on Thursday that snapped a 0-for-16 start to his career.
Crawford (1-1) gave up four runs, three earned, on 10 hits over six innings, raising his ERA to 1.35 from a major league best 0.66.
He allowed two runs on four hits in the second — both more than he has totalled in four of his previous five starts this season — when Chicago grabbed a 2-0 edge. He had not given up more than a run in each of his other starts. Matt Mervis had an RBI single and Crow-Armstrong added a ru.
