Imanaga looking to fix homer woes before Cubs' postseason run

CINCINNATI -- Shota Imanaga has been a steady performer out of the Cubs’ rotation this season, picking up mostly where he left off in his stellar rookie showing last year. He pitched in an All-Star Game and he helped author a no-hitter last summer. For this campaign, he took the ball on Opening Day in Tokyo.

The postseason is the next stage awaiting Imanaga, who will have one more start in the regular season before the Cubs move on to October baseball. In a 7-4 loss to the Reds on Friday night at Great American Ball Park, Imanaga ran into a couple issues that he can work to iron out before the playoff assignment arrives.

“I want to pitch well for the next start,” Imanaga said via his interpreter, Edwin Stanberry. “And hopefully build momentum going into a start in the playoffs.”

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A bulk of the scoring against Imanaga has come in the first inning this season -- 18 of his 54 runs allowed -- and the Reds jumped on the lefty with a solo homer in the opening frame by Miguel Andujar. Another trouble area has been surrendering home runs in general. Imanaga yielded three total in the defeat in Cincinnati.

Overall, Imanaga has allowed 29 home runs in 139 innings this season, surpassing his total last year (27) across a larger workload (173 1/3 innings). Among pitchers with at least 100 innings logged in the Majors this year, Imanaga’s rate of 1.88 homers per nine innings ranks as the third-highest mark.

“That’s a topic I need to work on: lower the amount of home runs,” Imanaga said. “That’s something I’ve been trying to work on, but it seems like the opposing hitters have the upper hand there. I think I need to continue to make adjustments.”

Not all home runs are created equal, and that was certainly the case in Cincinnati.

The first-inning blast by Andujar, for example, came on a high-and-tight fastball at the end of an eight-pitch battle. Cubs manager Craig Counsell also thought the 1-2 heater that Imanaga elevated to Spencer Steer in the fourth was a decent pitch, even though the Reds first baseman hammered it out to left. Matt McLain hit a mistake fastball out in the third.

“I thought two of the pitches were pretty good pitches,” Counsell said. “There wasn’t a lot of other hits, right? He pitched really well other than that. So, those two homers, they were a little confusing to me. I thought they were pretty good pitches that, normally, he gets fly balls on those pitches.”

The damage done against Imanaga -- Cincinnati scored four runs (three earned) on four hits in his five innings -- upped his ERA to 3.37 on the season. That right there is evidence of his ability to limit the damage, even with the higher home run rate. Giving up a higher slugging percentage is going to happen with his style of pitching, but Imanaga has to limit the traffic via walks and other hits.

To that end, Imanaga has allowed 24 solo home runs, compared to only five with men on base. And only one in that latter category included more than one baserunner.

“That’s what’s still encouraging is there’s not hard contact kind of the rest of the way,” Counsell said. “His split-finger was really good tonight. His slider was really good tonight. … There was some really good stuff in there, too.”

Imanaga pointed to the fact that he has given up most of the homers on fastballs (22 in total this season).

“It’s something I need to take a deeper look at,” Imanaga said, “and then see what we need to do.”

The Reds struck for three runs in the sixth against Cubs reliever Porter Hodge, who gave up back-to-back blasts to Steer and Elly De La Cruz. The pile of home runs effectively cancelled out the work by Chicago’s offense, which scored four runs (three via a solo homer from Dansby Swanson and a two-run shot by Matt Shaw) against Reds lefty Nick Lodolo.

As things stand, Imanaga projects to make his final start on Thursday or Friday when the Cubs are back at Wrigley Field. That would then line him up for a potential Game 1 or Game 2 nod if the Cubs wind up hosting a best-of-three National League Wild Card Series. Chicago (88-66) is currently six games behind the NL Central-leading Brewers (94-60) with six to play, but the Cubs remain in command of the top NL Wild Card spot.

Imanaga is excited to take that bigger stage.

“That’s something I’ve been looking forward to,” Imanaga said. “Hopefully, I can use that moment and use that experience for the rest of my baseball career.”