Cubs Ace Shota Imanaga Very Impressive in Long-Awaited Return to Mound

After a very long wait, the Chicago Cubs finally have their ace back.

Shota Imanaga made his return to the mound after being out since May 4 with a hamstring issue that proved more complicated than initially suspected.

Since then, the Cubs have been running on fumes a bit in the starting rotation, having to find production from places that were not ideal and give guys longer leashes then they normally would.

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Chicago mostly weathered the storm and have still been well above .500 with the left-hander on the shelf. However, they have been different team over the last almost two months compared to the first part of the season.

In one of the biggest starts of his young career, Imanaga did not disappoint.

The Cubs dropped the first two contests of the four-game set against their most hated rival the St. Louis Cardinals, but they earned a chance at a split with a victory on Wednesday night in shutout fashion.

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In his first Major League action in more than seven weeks, Imanaga tossed five scoreless innings of one-hit ball, walking one and striking out three, but most importantly, keeping the scoreboard clean.

He threw 77 pitches -- 49 of them for strikes -- and at one point retired 10 consecutive batters before his only walk of the afternoon.

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Leaving the game with a 2-0 lead, the bullpen handled things from there and got Chicago their second consecutive shutout over St. Louis to leave town with two wins in hand.

Caleb Thielbar, Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz and Daniel Palencia each kept runs off the board to earn Imanaga his fourth win of the season.

The outing for the Japanese 31-year-old lowered his already impressive ERA on the season to 2.54 along with a 1.03 WHIP. Imanaga has only made nine starts so far this year after hitting the mound 29 times in his debut 2024 season, but virtually all of them have been quality.

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The Cubs still need to address the lack of depth in the rotation at next month's trade deadline, but having Imanaga back and at his best is a massive boost to a unit that was in desperate need of it.

If he can raise his level of play over the next couple of months, it should go a long way towards helping Chicago create some distance in the division race and establish themselves as a legitimate National League contender.

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