Cubs’ biggest problem laid bare in awful Shota Imanaga stat

While Shota Imanaga hasn't had the dominant sophomore season he had in his rookie campaign, the Chicago Cubs starter has been plenty solid. After Monday night's loss to the Atlanta Braves, the Japanese import fell to 9-7 in 2025, but his earned run average of 3.21 isn't much worse than in 2024 (2.91). So why did he manage to go 15-3 last year and have a less impressive record this time around?

Monday's game was the perfect example of why Shota looks like he's struggling more than he really is in 2025. While he wasn't dominant, he logged a quality start, going 6 innings while allowing 5 hits and 3 runs. He walked zero batters for the fifth time in his last eight starts and struck out four. However, he was handed the loss as the offense behind him could manage just one run.

That's been the story of Shota Imanaga's second season with the Chicago Cubs. It's mainly been the story of the second half of the season. The lefty has, in fact, logged seven straight quality starts. Unfortunately, over that span, he's gone just 1-3 thanks to the offense scoring a total of 15 runs.

Shota Imanaga stuck in quality start streak with a disappointing Chicago Cubs offense

In other words, in his last seven starts, Shota has gotten an average run support of just more than 2 runs a game.

That's not to say Imanaga has been perfect. He's allowing far too many home runs (eight in those seven games), but he's also a flyball pitcher who has limited the damage.

Shota Imanaga is hardly the only Chicago Cubs pitcher who has seen a solid outing spoiled by an offense that can't seem to put together any kind of a run, but he's the best example of how many good to great outings are getting spoiled.