Chicago Cubs southpaw Shota Imanaga made his MLB debut at Wrigley Field on Monday, April 1. He was no joke on the mound, pitching six innings of two-hit baseball with nine punchouts and zero earned runs. Here, we will examine two things to know regarding his magnificent performance.
Shota Imanaga Took a No-hitter into the Sixth Inning
It took until the sixth inning for the Colorado Rockies to collect their first hits of the day off of Imanaga. He had two outs in the sixth inning before surrendering back-to-back singles to Charlie Blackmon and Brendan Rodgers. Per Elias Sports, this no-hid bid tied Cubs history for the longest in franchise history of a player making their MLB debut.
Shota Imanaga Joined Nick Kingham with the Most Strikeouts and No Walks or Runs Allowed During an MLB Debut
Since 1901, only two pitchers have had MLB debuts, consisting of at least six innings pitched, and no walks or runs were allowed. Nick Kingham covered seven innings for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2018, allowing one hit, no walks, no runs, and nine strikeouts.
Imanaga signed a four-year, $53 million contract with the Chicago Cubs this off-season, and is part of a wave of talent MLB is seeing from Japan. He joins Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani as the latest stars to emerge, and hopefully Roki Sasaki in the coming year. He has a lot more starts to go, but so far, this is about as good an MLB debut as anyone could ask for.
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