CHICAGO — The first time Japanese star Shota Imanaga was scheduled to pitch against the Cardinals, the game in St. Louis was rained out.
The Cardinals weren’t that lucky on Saturday.
Imanaga allowed just four hits over seven innings and got a three-run homer from Ian Happ that carried the Cubs to the win at Wrigley Field.
The lefthanded rookie, who signed with the Cubs as a free agent, did not walk a batter and struck out six as he raised his record to 7-1 with a 1.89 ERA.
The only run the Cardinals scored came when Alec Burleson led off the fourth inning with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on Nolan Arenado’s sacrifice fly.
A win would have allowed the Cardinals to move above .500 for the first time since they were 5-4 on April 6. Since then, they have had six chances to move past .500 but are now 0-6 in those games.
Here is how Saturday’s game broke down:
At the plate: The other hits for the Cardinals off Imanaga were a single by Arenado leading off the second, a single by Masyn Winn in the sixth and a single by Ivan Herrera in the seventh … Imanaga also hit Arenado with a pitch but kept the Cardinals hitless in four at-bats with a runner in scoring position … Nolan Gorman was 0-of-4, exending his current streak to 0-of-16, including 10 strikeouts.
On the mound: The Cubs took a 2-1 lead in the fourth. Andre Pallante allowed back-to-back singles to begin the inning and was pulled after striking out Happ … Pallante only threw 59 pitches … Chris Roycroft’s fielding error allowed the first run to score, and the second run scored on a ball just in front of the plate hit by Dansby Swanson … The Cubs put the leadoff hitter on base in six consecutive innings, scoring twice, in the fourth and on Happ’s home run off John King in the seventh … Cardinals relievers issued five walks but did not allow any of those runners to score. Roycroft loaded the bases with three consecutive walks in the fifth but Kyle Leahy got Nico Hoerner to fly out to the wall in left to get out of the jam.
Key stat: Cardinals pitchers had combined to not allow an extra-base hit over their previous 25 innings before Happ’s homer in the seventh, giving up 17 singles over that stretch.
Worth noting: Happ’s homer the 25th of his career against the Cardinals, the second most by an active opposing player trailing only Joey Votto, now with the Blue Jays, with 36 … Two stolen bases by the Cubs increased the opponents success rate against the Cardinals to 54 steals in 62 attempts. Since Willson Contreras was hurt on May 7, Herrera and Pedro Pages combined have thrown out five of 34 runners attempting to steal. Opponents have not been thrown out stealing by a Cardinals catcher since May 27.
Looking ahead: The Cardinals will conclude the series in Chicago with a special 12:05 p.m. game on Sunday, with Miles Mikolas the scheduled starter. The game will be broadcast on the Roku TV channel but anyone with an MLB.tv subscription should be able to watch the game.