Game Recap: Rangers avoid sweep by Cubs |
Dustin Riese
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- Wednesday, April 09 2025
CHICAGO - It was an overall tough day for the Chicago Cubs (9-6) in more ways than one. Not only did the news break about Justin Steele heading to the IL with an elbow injury, but then the Cubs watched Shota Imanaga have a rare rough outing at Wrigley Field as the left-hander was charged with five earned runs in five innings.
Four of those runs came in a shaky fourth inning as the Texas Rangers (9-4) got the bats working and used a strong start from Tommy Mahle to avoid the sweep 6-2. To put this start into context for what Shota Imanaga has been able to do, this was just the fourth time in his MLB career that he has allowed more than three runs in a start and only the second time at Wrigley. You got a sense of how things would go early on as the Rangers came out swinging in the first inning and put four fly balls in play with several of them reaching the warning track. One of those balls even left the yard as Corey Seager went the opposite way for his first of two solo homers to give the Rangers an early 1-0. Hard contact was the theme of most of Imanaga's outing as the Rangers put several well-struck balls in play throughout his start but were unable to do damage. On the other hand, Mahle completely handcuffed the Cubs, which shouldn't come as a surprise when you look at his success on the North Side. Making his seventh career start at Wrigley, Mahle not only improved to 4-1 with a 2.27 ERA, but this was arguably his best outing of them all as he held the Cubs scoreless through three innings. Mahle also didn't allow a hit in those innings and faced just one batter above the minimum, as the Cubs had a tough time finding the barrel throughout. It took four innings for the Cubs' bats to come to life, and that all started with the scorching hot Seiya Suzuki, who went the other way for a one-out triple to set the Cubs' offense up in a good spot. A few pitches later, this game was tied, as Michael Busch ripped one past Jake Berger at first to bring things back to even 1-1. Those were the only two hits Mahle would allow in his outing as he gave the Rangers seven impressive innings of one-run, two-hit baseball, walking one and striking out four. Despite keeping the Rangers off the board after the first inning, you knew that all of that hard contact would come back to bite Imanaga later in the game, and you started to see that in the fifth inning. What started with an infield from Kevin Pillar to lead things off turned into a 3-1 game as Jonah Heim took Imanaga deep. Two batters later, Marcus Semien connected for a well-struck single to left before coming home on the Josh Jung double off the wall to open up a 4-1 lead as all four of the balls put in play up to this point were over 100 MPH. Texas would cap off their massive four-run fifth inning on an Adolis Garcia single as the Rangers broke things open 5-1. That would be all the offense they would need as Mahle was on cruise control by this point and retired the final 11 hitters he faced before finally giving way to the Rangers pen. With one homer under his belt, Seager made it two as he touched up Nate Pearson in the seventh for another solo shot to extend the Rangers lead to 6-1. It wasn't until the ninth inning that the Cubs offense was able to score again, and once again, it was the top of the order doing the damage. That all started with a leadoff single from Ian Happ before he wound up at second on a wild pitch. Two batters later, Suzuki was capping off his multi-hit day. He was responsible for two of the Cubs' four hits and drove in the game's final run in what was a 6-2 Rangers win. With the loss, the Cubs closed out their first homestand of the season with a 4-2 mark, although they could've been 5-1, considering how Sunday unfolded. Chicago also saw Ethan Roberts make his debut in the ninth, working a scoreless frame after being added to the roster to replace Steele. The Cubs have an off day on Thursday before heading back West to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres for a six-game trip.
