CHICAGO – Shota Imanaga and two Cubs relievers combined to pitch a no-hitter to lead Chicago to a 12-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night.
Imanaga (12-3), a 31-year-old left-hander in his first season with the Cubs after playing eight seasons as a pitcher in Japan, had seven strikeouts and two walks in seven innings, throwing 66 of 95 pitches for strikes.
He needed 25 pitches to get through the second inning. His season high is 103 pitches against St. Louis on June 15. Imanaga did not make an out in the eighth inning.
Imanaga signed a four-year, $53 million contract in January. Chicago paid a transfer fee of $9,825,000 to the Yokohama BayStars of the Japanese Central League.
Nate Pearson pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and rookie Porter Hodge pitched a perfect ninth in the Cubs’ 18th no-hitter, the first since Zach Davies, Ryan Tepera, Andrew Chafin and Craig Kimbrel combined to keep Los Angeles hitless at Dodger Stadium on June 24, 2021.
Chicago players celebrated when shortstop Dansby Swanson threw to first baseman Michael Busch on a grounder by Oneil Cruz for the final out. According to ESPN Stats & Information, this is the first combined no-hitter in MLB history in which a rookie started and finished the game.
Chicago hadn’t thrown a no-hitter at Wrigley Field since Milt Pappas against San Diego on September 2, 1972 – Pappas was one pitch away from a perfect game when Bruce Froemming called fourth on a full-count pitch to Larry Stahl, and Garry Jestadt was thrown out.
This was the fourth no-hitter of the season, following complete performances by Houston’s Ronel Blanco against Toronto on April 1, San Diego’s Dylan Cease in Washington on July 25 and San Francisco’s Blake Snell in Cincinnati on April 2.
Nico Hoerner, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Swanson each had three of Chicago’s 17 hits, with Swanson and Crow-Armstrong both missing a triple. According to ESPN Stats & Information, it was only the sixth no-hitter in MLB history in which one team had at least 17 more hits than the other.
Domingo German (0-1), who pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees against Oakland last year, allowed seven runs – six earned – and nine hits in three innings.
Seiya Suzuki hit an RBI single in the first inning and Chicago took a 4-0 lead in the second inning when Crow-Armstrong hit a multi-run double and Happ hit a two-run single in the second inning.
Swanson’s two-run homer and Crow-Armstrong’s solo hit increased the lead to 7-0 in the third inning. Cody Bellinger hit a two-run homer against Kyle Nicolas in the sixth inning.
This report uses information from the Associated Press.
