“I know everybody was talking about Yamamoto,” Sox manager Alex Cora said Friday afternoon. A few hours later, the Sox got a striking glimpse of the pitcher they'd courted in a 7-1 loss to the Cubs at Fenway Park in the series opener. Imanaga (4-0, 0.98 ERA) dazzled in 6⅓ innings, allowing just five hits while striking out seven and walking one, to allow Chicago to cruise to a road victory witnessed by 31,801 fans — many of them Cubs partisans. When the Red Sox started taking better hacks against those two offerings, Imanaga confounded with an array of breaking balls.
W | L | Pct | GB | |
---|---|---|---|---|
16 | 9 | .640 | 0.0 | |
17 | 10 | .630 | 0.0 | |
14 | 13 | .519 | 3.0 | |
13 | 14 | .481 | 4.0 | |
13 | 14 | .481 | 4.0 |