I mean hey, we all knew one of these awful starts was coming from Shōta Imanaga, but the real concern from Friday afternoon’s shelling by the Mets against the Japanese lefty is that the pitcher’s velocity was down.
Imanaga has been able to dominate hitters all season long with his nasty splitter and unique fastball, which despite only averaging 91.8mph heading into Friday was giving hitters fits up in the zone. Well, in his second career start against the Mets, Imanaga got crushed and his fastball wasn’t giving New York any issues whatsoever.
The Cubs lefty had a 1.89 ERA through his first 13 starts of the season with Imanaga’s worst outing coming on May 29, when the Brewers tagged him for seven earned runs in 4.1 innings in Milwaukee. Well, on Friday Imanaga surrendered 10 earned runs on 11 hits and that included three home runs in three innings of work.
All three home runs were on fastballs and the pair of long balls that Imanaga gave up in the second inning came on pitches that were below 90mph. Overall, Imanaga ended his start by only averaging 90.1mph on his fastball, which was down 1.7mph from his season average.
Less than 2mph of a difference might not seem like a huge deal, but it’s certainly easy to tell that the extra jump simply was not there for Imanaga vs. the Mets. He’s been able to live at the top and sometimes a bit above of the strike zone this year, but when that fastball is barely touching 90mph bad things are going to happen.
Imanaga’s velocity was down across the board and that’s one thing you definitely want to keep your eye on moving forward. Again, starting pitchers have bad days, it happens to the very best. However, we know that Imanaga can be stellar with his repertoire, but as shown on Friday vs. the Mets if he’s not pitching with his normal velocity then it could be a long summer pitching at Wrigley Field for the left-hander.
Last 3 Imanaga Starts
June 9: @ Reds, 91.1mph average FB – 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 7 K, 1 BB
June 15: vs. Cardinals, 91.1mph average FB – 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 6 K, 0 BB
June 21: vs. Mets, 90.1mph average FB, 3 IP, 11 H, 10 ER, 3 K, 1 BB
So, we had already seen Imanaga’s velocity begin to dip earlier in June, going from about 92mph down to 91.1mph against the Reds and Cardinals. Yet, that decrease wasn’t as drastic as the one we saw against the Mets, as Imanaga was barely eclipsing 90mph and was crushed.
But maybe it’s a combo of Imanaga not throwing as hard and the Mets having a better scouting report in their second game against the Cubs lefty. Unfortunately, the Cubs won’t have a scheduled off day until July 1, so unless he’s given an extra day, Imanaga will have to bounce back next week on the road against the San Francisco Giants. At least there Imanaga will be in a pitcher-friendly environment, especially for a fly ball pitcher like Imanaga.
