Shota Imanaga held the St. Louis Cardinals to a run on four hits over seven innings to earn his seventh win Saturday as the Chicago Cubs triumphed 5-1.
Imanaga (7-1) struck out six with a hit batsman in a strong 103-pitch outing at Wrigley Field, surrendering his only run in the fourth inning when Alec Burleson hit a leadoff double and came home on Nolan Arenado's sacrifice fly to open the scoring.
The Cubs scored two runs in the home half to take the lead before Imanaga had two runners on bases for the first time in the seventh.
The southpaw escaped the jam by getting Dylan Carlson to fly out to left and striking out Brendan Donovan swinging before Ian Happ slugged a three-run home run in the bottom of the inning.
Seiya Suzuki went 2-for-3 with a walk batting cleanup for the Cubs.
"Getting to generate the same level of power until the end was a real positive," Imanaga said. "I'd have ruined my teammates' efforts grinding out our runs if I had given up a run (in the seventh). My fist pumps might have come out of relief."
MLB's other big-name Japanese rookie pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, threw just two innings of his start for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Kansas City Royals before leaving the mound with triceps tightness.
The right-hander allowed a hit and a walk while striking out one in 28 pitches at Dodger Stadium. Shohei Ohtani went 0-for-3 as the Dodgers lost 7-2.
