The Rundown: Imanaga Mortal After All, Brewers Fans Won’t Forgive Counsell, Cubs Have Boring Personality

“And the sun will leave the room, will leave you to the night and that’s alright.” – Future Islands, Balance

Shōta Imanaga is mortal after all. Christian Yelich put the Brewers up 2-0 in the 1st inning with a two-run homer, and Milwaukee added five runs in the third off Imanaga, who entered the contest with a 0.84 ERA. He had allowed just five earned runs in his first nine starts. Milwaukee had not scored a single run against Cubs starters in 32.1 innings before Yelich’s blast. Imanaga left Wednesday’s start with a 1.86 ERA.

I wouldn’t get too worried about it, though. Heck, Cy Young lost 315 games and Greg Maddux dropped 227. Imanaga will be just fine if he wins five of every six decisions. Blake Perkins also tagged Imanaga for a two-run blast, and that’s something to keep an eye on. Chicago’s 30-year-old rookie is a flyball pitcher and a few baseballs will become souvenirs if he misses his spots.

“I didn’t throw it where I wanted to,” Imanaga said through an interpreter. “They were making adjustments and I didn’t have the consistency today.”

After the final game against the Brewers Cubs play the next nine games against the Reds and the White Sox. So if they're ever going to wake up now would be the time.

— Sean Holland (@sth85) May 30, 2024

If you’re looking for a silver lining, it’s that the Cubs pounded out 10 hits and reached base 16 times. Additionally, Dansby Swanson just missed an opposite-field grand slam in the 5th inning with the Cubs trailing 7-4. Swanson has been slumping and a knock there might have helped the streaky hitter reverse course. It also might have kept Imanaga’s perfect record intact. Then again, we couldn’t have expected the Japanese star to keep his era below 1.00 with an unblemished record.

The Cubs can earn a series split with a win this afternoon and they badly need that. They’re 4.5 games behind the Brewers and tied for second place with the red-hot Cardinals entering play today. Jameson Taillon will take the bump today, and he’ll go to battle against Colin Rea. The two righthanders are nearly identical statistically, but give the edge to Chicago’s North Side Baseballers if their bats are still warm.

Cubs News & Notes

• The Cubs may be getting a little too cute in managing player workload, and they may have hurt Imanaga, who was skipped for a full turn through the rotation after Friday’s rainout in St. Louis.
• Imanaga allowed as many runs yesterday as he had in his first nine starts combined.
• The previously undefeated starter publicly apologized to Counsell and his teammates for his poor outing.
• Pitching coach Tommy Hottovy believes Ben Brown can “do whatever he wants to do” at the major league level.
• Counsell has not met expectations since arriving, particularly regarding Chicago’s stagnant offense. For what it’s worth, some media personalities up here believe the Cubs regret their decision to hire Counsell. That reeks of sour grapes and yellow journalism, however, and I doubt there is a shred of truth to the rumor. As I said yesterday, the veteran manager is navigating the garbage barge Jed Hoyer gave him. Counsell is hardly to blame.
• Slightly more than 50% of Milwaukeeans polled said they would never forgive Counsell for signing with the Cubs.
• Morel is the perfect microcosm of Chicago’s offensive struggles for the past month.
• Marquee Network analyst Cliff Floyd believes the Cubs are a little too tentative on offense right now.
• Kyle Hendricks was named one of baseball’s worst players through one-third of the season. The 34-year-old righty was responsible for allowing 66 base runners and 38 earned runs in his first 32.2 innings pitched entering last night’s contest.
• Though he did not play for the I-Cubs yesterday, Pete Crow-Armstrong is 12-for-31 (.387) with four doubles and three homers in seven games since being demoted. GM Carter Hawkins indicated the rookie outfielder is making a strong case to be recalled.
• Crow-Armstrong was, in fact, recalled as I am writing this. Infielder Luis Vázquez was optioned to Iowa as the corresponding move.
• Cade Horton experienced lat soreness before the 2nd inning on Wednesday night and was removed from the game. He will head to Chicago for further evaluation.

Odds & Sods

The tweet below is spot on, and it’s also something Cubs Insider EIC Evan Altman wrote about on Tuesday. The issue I have with that mindset is that Chicago doesn’t seem to have any offensive leaders at this point. Jed Hoyer has assembled a homogenized roster that is led by a manager with a like personality. Leaders rarely distinguish themselves if their peers are similarly wired.

Suffice it to say, I think this team needs the fire it lost when Crow-Armstrong was demoted. Further, Christopher Morel has been shockingly milquetoast while trying to manage his slump.

A baseball offense cannot have its leaders, personalities fundamental to the team who are essentially immovable from consistent roles, be their worst players. It can’t work that way.

Be better, Cubs de facto captains. Be a whole lot better.

— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) May 30, 2024

Central Intelligence

• Milwaukee (32-23): The Brewers have succeeded historically thanks to a strong pitching staff, but this year, Milwaukee’s bats are powering the team to the top of the NL Central.
• St. Louis (27-27): The Cardinals reached .500 for the first time in six weeks thanks to a 5-3 win over the Reds.
• Pittsburgh (26-30): Nick Gonzalez and Joey Bart have surged offensively but can the former first-round picks sustain that pace?
• Cincinnati (24-32): The Reds have retired one dumb home run celebration for something a little more secretive.

Climbing the Ladder

“The dawn to end all nights…that’s all we hoped it was. A break from the warfare in your house.” – Broken Bells, The High Road

Imanaga had a rough outing but the Cubs could have won yesterday. Chicago was 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base in the 10-6 loss. Morel has stranded 28 runners on second or third this season, which is 0.5 runs per game. Michael Busch (21) and Nico Hoerner (20) aren’t much better. That’s leaving an awful lot of ducks on the pond.

• Games Played: 56
• Record: 28-28 (.500), 2nd place tie in NL Central
• In One-Run Games: 10-11 (.476)
• Total Plate Appearances: 2,107
• Total Strikeouts: 497
• Strikeout Rate: 23.58%
• Team Batting Average: .227
• With Runners in Scoring Position: 101-for-429 (.236)
• Runs Scored: 240
• Runs Allowed: 248
• Pythagorean Record: 27-29
• Chances of Making the Playoffs: 57.53%, 1.9% chance to win World Series 

How About That!

The White Sox have lost a season-high eight straight games and 12 of 13 overall. With sweeps by Baltimore (four games) and Toronto (three), it was the first winless homestand of at least seven games in franchise history.

Chicago is 15-42 (.263) on the season and on a pace to lose 119 games, but manager Pedro Grifol seems to be in no danger of losing his job.

Alek Manoah of the Blue Jays is the latest starter to go down with an elbow issue. He left last night’s game against the White Sox in the 2nd inning.

The Mets designated Jorge López for assignment after the reliever threw his glove in the stands in anger after being ejected.

López called the Mets “the worst f**king team in the league” after he was tossed.

A’s reliever Mason Miller is on a historic run and leads baseball in every major expected category.

Wednesday’s Three Stars

1. Nelson Velázquez – The ex-Cub homered twice last night, plating three runners on a 2-for-4 night in the Royals’ 6-1 victory over the Twins. José Cuas earned his first save for Iowa last night, in case you were wondering.
2. Seth Lugo – The Kansas City starter improved to 9-1 with a league-leading 1.72 ERA in the win.
3. Paul Skenes – The Pirates’ heralded rookie tossed six innings of three-hit ball with nine strikeouts on Wednesday. Not bad, but not as good as Brown was on Tuesday

Extra Innings

The Cubs are 28-28, offensively challenged, and have a personality void, so why not let PCA get enough MLB reps to be the star this team sorely needs?

Tonight's @IowaCubs game just gave us the very definition of poetic justice.

Wily Peralta throws behind Pete Crow-Armstrong on consecutive pitches, Marty Pevey gets tossed defending his player, and then PCA hits the next pitch a million feet.

What a moment at Principal Park. pic.twitter.com/UqKB7FpDT7

— Mark Freund (@MarkFreundTV) May 25, 2024

Walk-Off Grand Slam

I’ll be at today’s Cubs-Brewers game with dear friends @SonRanto and @InfieldFlyGirl and I am assuming other members of Son Ranto’s Ranters. Milwaukee will never be the same again.

They Said It

• “[Milwaukee] was making adjustments and I didn’t have the consistency to throw on top of the zone. I talked to my pitching coach about it, so I just want to work on that. There could possibly be games where [opponents] score even more runs. Emotionally, physically, there might be tougher situations, so I just want to reflect and move forward.” – Imanaga
• “[Crow-Armstrong] is definitely making a case for [a promotion]. The ability to play defense, the ability to go down there, take the option decision really well, get the at-bats in, and just make the most out of the days down there. He really hasn’t missed a beat, so that’s been super encouraging. He’s made a really, really strong case. I think there’s a decent chance that we’re a better team with him up here. That’s a decision we’re going to make sooner rather than later.” – Hawkins
• “[Brown] is just a really good pitcher. You see anytime you put him in the game, in different situations, he just shines. We talk about young guys coming up all the time. I do think getting them to come into the game out of the bullpen and be available out there in shorter bursts gives them a little bit of a softer landing to feel what the big leagues are like, how important it is to know how good your stuff is and trust it and attack the strike zone. And then you see him kind of take that into starting, and it carries over.” – Hottovy

Thursday Walk-Up Song

I’m meeting Infield Fly Girl for the first time today. She lives in Seattle and is one of Twitter’s best baseball personalities, so I thought I’d throw a little Emerald City Sub-Pop at you in her honor, though I believe Washed Out actually hails from Portland. Pearl Jam would have been a little too obvious.