MLB fans were left speechless over the epic debut of new Chicago Cubs pitcher Shōta Imanaga against the Colorado Rockies on Monday.
Shōta Imanaga made it look oh-too-easy against the Rockies in his first MLB start. The 30-year-old went six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits while striking out nine batters. Imanaga didn’t issue a single walk, and 65 of his 92 pitches were strikes, per ESPN.
Rob Friedman, widely known by his X/Twitter handle @PitchingNinja, shared several clips of Imanaga’s nasty stuff a Wrigley Field. Some of these pitches included filthy sweepers in the low 80s and splitters:
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The incredible outing of Shōta Imanaga left countless baseball fans on social media in awe. Here are some of the best reactions to his near-flawless outing in the Windy City:
Back in January, the Cubs signed Imanaga to a four-year contract worth $53 million following a superb eight-year run with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in the Japanese Central League. Imanaga was a two-time NPB All-Star who led the Central League in strikeouts last year.
The 5-foot-10, 175-pound Shōta Imanaga certainly didn’t pitch like someone making his debut in the Majors on Monday. His jaw-dropping outing moved Chicago to 2-2 on the season after the club dropped its first two contests to the Texas Rangers.
Chicago will wrap up its three-game series against the Rockies on Wednesday afternoon. The two clubs will meet in game two of the series tomorrow at 7:40 p.m. EST, with Javier Assad set to start on the mound for the Cubbies.
Shōta Imanaga’s Next Scheduled Start
You’ll want to circle your calendar for Shōta Imanaga’s next start. It’s currently set for Sunday at Wrigley Field against Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are in town for a three-game series this weekend.
The $700 million man has guided the Dodgers to a promising 4-2 start. The weekend series will be a nice opportunity for Chicago to show that they can challenge the other NL heavyweights, including Atlanta and the Dodgers.
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