2026 Cubs Heroes and Goats: Shōta Imanaga is the Superhero vs. the Pirates

It came up in the comments yesterday as to why there is so much talk around a 17-game stretch like this. Every team has at least one and often a couple of these every year. This one grew to 17 when the Toronto game in Chicago in June got rained out and had to be rescheduled. I laughed, because that happened the weekend I was in New Hampshire to see Banana Ball. That’s going on this weekend in Wrigley. I’ve seen two Banana games and find them very much different in a jarring way for a serious baseball fan. But also fun.

I’d have not gone back to see them a second time, but the second time my daughter was working the game. I don’t think I’ve talked about it here and I know a few of you will recall that I had talked about her while she was at Bradley studying sports communication with a hope of getting a job in baseball. She made it. She’s working for the Blue Jays Double-A affiliate in New Hampshire. She is the director of the stadium experience. Basically, she oversees the broadcast, social media and the stuff that ends up on the scoreboard. It was the first time I’ve gotten to see her working there. Though obviously, the Banana people handle a lot of their own production and she was kind of a bystander for that.

Anyway, what about this stretch of games? More than anything, 162 games is a lot to take in. It doesn’t break down easily the way football does, with one week being a significant chunk of the season. For baseball, that’s like 9 or 10 games. So you need these subsections. In this instance, this chunk is really readily identifiable. To the commenter’s credit, he noted that the Cubs were pretty rested coming off the long break, then just six games before another off day. That’s about as well as one of these stretches could land. As much as the beginning of the season, your pitchers aren’t worn out, you always want extra time early in the year. You are trying to figure out roles for everyone and building endurance. So if you told me I HAD to take one of these stretches, this is just about perfect.

The thing about these stretches is that they absolutely can bury your season. You get one of these and start slip and sliding it away and you could lose 12-15 games in less than three weeks and really dig a hole. To be fair, if either Matthew Boyd Friday or Shōta Imanaga Saturday had gotten hit hard, you could get sideways. Instead, they posted 13 innings between them (out of 19 total innings). Three Cub relievers each threw once. You have a whole handful of guys who go into Sunday actually actively looking to get an inning in and stay in rhythm. So still on the ideal side of the curve.

I find this stretch curious because we’ve seen this team have some pretty high highs, some pretty low lows and now get grooved in again pretty good. I don’t try to BS anyone here. I think the Cubs have a reasonable chance at winning one playoff series, an uphill battle to win two and a monumental task to win three. But I believe you do what you can. So how can this team do when it is tested? We’re going to see them tested with quality opposition and pitchers that are generally on the wrong side of the matchup pushed to be competitive. Imanaga is not going to be overmatched really by anyone as he was in this one and he came out a winner.

This is all good to see and a lot of fun. Your mileage may vary, but this is the second straight Cub season that I will describe as a lot of fun. Have I wanted to throw things at times? Absolutely. But to have three stretches of time where the team was rolling is pretty awesome (fair if you call it two, with the two 10-game winning streaks defining one longer stretch). It’s fun when you are celebrating a win almost every day. This mishmosh of a team is somehow 14 games over .500. A win on Sunday and the team will match its high point of the season. Yeah, that one’s a tough matchup too, so maybe they don’t reach the plateau again. But even driving through this neighborhood is fun. Fun for some anyway. I’m not sitting around waiting for the sky to fall.

I’m enjoying the summer of Pete Crow-Armstrong staring down Shohei Ohtani and saying “yeah, you are a once in a century type talent and all, but I think I can win this MVP.” I still kind of fail to believe he’ll win it. But it’s fun to think that if the season ended today that it should be a legit conversation. And it’s fun that if the season stays on the current trajectory, he probably should be the MVP. But Ohtani is certainly capable of getting back on an out of this world trajectory of his own and we’ve certainly see PCA slump. But man, he’s made it more of a conversation than I think anyone would ever believe.

I’m going to keep doing the perspective check. I make no secret of some of it being me talking to myself. Don’t get too high or too low. Four teams have more wins than the Cubs. One team has as many wins as the Cubs. The Cubs presently have a 3.5 game lead for the first Wild Card position in the NL. The Cubs are on a 92-win pace. They’ve booked two wins beginning this 17-game stretch. If they can go 8-7 the rest of the way through this stretch, they will emerge at 15 games over .500 which would match their highest point this year. Obviously, there are sequences where that wouldn’t be their high point including that stretch. But really, that would equate to 10 of 17 and I’d mark myself as very happy with that result. And again, I hope I’m underselling them.

• One of the things I liked best about Joe Maddon was the way he liked to get a guy into a game right away after he was called up. I know I heard him say something about you never know if you’re going to have one of those weird games where you need the guy to succeed in a difficult situation and you don’t want that to be their first taste. So I always hate when the Cubs bring up minor leaguers to sit. The nature of the 26th player is a lot that way and so it kind of is what it is. But I was glad to see the lopsided game allow James Triantos to get a chance to hit and delighted that he came through with a single and then to score from first, flashing some speed. Kudos, kid. Hope there are many more fun times.

• Shōta Imanaga threw six shutout innings, allowing only four hits and a walk.

• Michael Busch had three singles and two runs batted in.

• I love the days where Pete would belong here even if I wasn’t tracking him like an obsessive ESPN bit. He had four hits, two of them doubles and one of them a homer. He drove in three, scored three and stole a base. His line climbs to .291/.390/.544 (wRC+ 156). As a side note, I can not even begin to express how cool it is that the top 11 in wRC+ as I’m looking at it includes two of my favorite ex-Cubs, a current Cub and a Ray. I’m a little sad that Willson Contreras is having an under the radar standout season. Or at least under my radar.

One of the things I liked best about Joe Maddon was the way he liked to get a guy into a game right away after he was called up. I know I heard him say something about you never know if you’re going to have one of those weird games where you need the guy to succeed in a difficult situation and you don’t want that to be their first taste. So I always hate when the Cubs bring up minor leaguers to sit. The nature of the 26th player is a lot that way and so it kind of is what it is. But I was glad to see the lopsided game allow James Triantos to get a chance to hit and delighted that he came through with a single and then to score from first, flashing some speed. Kudos, kid. Hope there are many more fun times.

Shōta Imanaga threw six shutout innings, allowing only four hits and a walk.

Michael Busch had three singles and two runs batted in.

I love the days where Pete would belong here even if I wasn’t tracking him like an obsessive ESPN bit. He had four hits, two of them doubles and one of them a homer. He drove in three, scored three and stole a base. His line climbs to .291/.390/.544 (wRC+ 156). As a side note, I can not even begin to express how cool it is that the top 11 in wRC+ as I’m looking at it includes two of my favorite ex-Cubs, a current Cub and a Ray. I’m a little sad that Willson Contreras is having an under the radar standout season. Or at least under my radar.

Game 104, July 25: Cubs 11, Pirates 0 (59-45)

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Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.

• Superhero: Shōta Imanaga (.280). 6 IP, 23 BF, 4 H, BB, 0 R, 4 K (W 7-8)

• Hero: Dansby Swanson (.197). 2-4, 2B, RBI, R

• Sidekick: Pete Crow-Armstrong (.184). 4-5, HR, 2 2B, 3 RBI, 3 R, SB

Superhero: Shōta Imanaga (.280). 6 IP, 23 BF, 4 H, BB, 0 R, 4 K (W 7-8)

Hero: Dansby Swanson (.197). 2-4, 2B, RBI, R

Sidekick: Pete Crow-Armstrong (.184). 4-5, HR, 2 2B, 3 RBI, 3 R, SB

• Billy Goat: Michael Busch (-.087). 3-6, 2 RBI

• Goat: Alex Bregman (-.073). 0-5, BB

• Kid: Ian Happ (-.055). 0-3, BB

Billy Goat: Michael Busch (-.087). 3-6, 2 RBI

Goat: Alex Bregman (-.073). 0-5, BB

WPA Play of the Game: Pete Crow-Armstrong’s RBI double in the fifth drove in the first run of the game. (.178)

Pirates Play of the Game: Paul Skenes‘ strikeout of Seiya Suzuki with runners on first and third with one out in the third. (.073)

Game 103 Winner: Matthew Boyd received 63 of 87 votes.

Rizzo Award Standings: (Top 5/Bottom 5)

The award is named for Anthony Rizzo, who finished first in this category three of the first four years it was in existence and four times overall. He also recorded the highest season total ever at +65.5. The point scale is three points for a Superhero down to negative three points for a Billy Goat.

• Pete Crow-Armstrong +22

• Carson Kelly +15.5

• Ben Brown +13.5

• Shōta Imanaga +12

• Trent Thornton +11.5

• Jameson Taillon/Phil Maton -10

• Nico Hoerner/Dansby Swanson -13

• Caleb Thielbar -14

Up Next: The third and final game of the weekend series. Jameson Taillon (2-5, 5.38) makes another attempt to get his season back on track. It’s been a nightmare. In his first game back, he allowed four runs in 4.1 innings of work. He hasn’t won since April though he did have one quality start against the A’s in early June. He returns to the place where he started his career.

Braxton Ashcraft (9-4, 3.95) is just another talented Pirate starter. The second round pick (No. 51 overall) for the Pirates in 2018 is thriving in his first full season as a major league starter. But he is maybe showing a little wear for his first long season at the MLB level. He has a 4-1 record but a 5.40 ERA over his last seven starts (36.2) innings. As can happen, one game is influencing that a lot. He allowed seven runs in three innings against the Yankees on Monday. His last start before the break, the Brewers scored five in five innings. So he’s been human. Hopefully the Cub bats can stay hot and the Pirate bullpen cold.