Shōta Imanaga made his first appearance for the Cubs in 2025 and the box score results weren’t great. The Cubs fell behind early, but an eighth-inning rally tied the game and that’s where things ended up, a 4-4 tie with the Giants. So the Cubs didn’t win… but didn’t lose either, and remain undefeated.

Imanaga allowed a two-run homer to Casey Schmitt, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch in 2⅔ innings of work. In so doing he became the first Cubs starter to throw in the third inning this spring. Giants radio announcer Joe Ritzo said Imanaga threw 53 pitches in facing 13 Giants batters, which is perfectly reasonable (4.08 per batter).

I wouldn’t worry about a thing here. First, Imanaga is throwing more pitches than most Cubs this spring in order to get him ramped up to start March 18 in Tokyo against the Dodgers. We also know that Shōta is somewhat prone to giving up home runs, and that’s especially true in the thinner air in Arizona, when it’s unseasonably warm (84 degrees, normal is about 72) and the wind was blowing out.

More important is that Shōta did seem to have his usual command — he struck out six. This seems a perfectly reasonable outing for his first of the year. Presuming Shõta stays on this schedule, he’ll next start Monday against the Diamondbacks in Scottsdale, or perhaps Craig Counsell will hold him back to start Tuesday at home against the Padres.

Here are Shōta’s six K’s [VIDEO].

Meanwhile, the Cubs didn’t score in the first inning despite loading the bases with nobody out. Hopefully, this is not something that will happen often during the season.

They did plate a run in the second after Ben Cowles doubled. After Nicky Lopez walked, Michael Busch reached on an error by Schmitt, with Cowles scoring.

But they had many chances early they did not take advantage of. The Cubs left nine runners on base in the first four innings and went 0-for-11 with RISP in that time. Again, hoping this is just a one-off.

Caleb Thielbar threw the fourth inning and was much better this time than in his first spring outing. He allowed a single but no runs, and struck out two. The Cubs need Thielbar to be good, as he likely is the only lefty reliever on the Opening Day roster.

The Cubs threatened in the fifth, but didn’t score. Vidal Bruján walked and stole both second and third, but failed to score after the ball got away on the steal of third. Bruján seems a man on a mission to show that he can get back to the guy who stole 240 bases in 626 minor-league games. That would be a useful skill to have on the Cubs bench.

In the fifth, the entire Cubs starting lineup was given the rest of the afternoon off. Caleb Kilian, the former Giants prospect acquired in the Kris Bryant deal, threw the sixth. It did not begin well. The first three Giants had hits, including an RBI double making it 4-1. But after that Kilian retired the next three hitters, throwing 98, and his second inning of work was better, working around an error for a scoreless sixth. I continue to believe Kilian would be more useful to the Cubs in the bullpen.

Trevor Richards, a longshot to make the pen, had a 1-2-3 seventh, the first 1-2-3 inning by any pitcher in this game.

The Cubs tied up the game in the eighth. The first scored on two singles and a sac fly by Cristian Hernandez. Then Greg Allen homered with Jonathon Long on first base to make it 4-4 [VIDEO].

Brandon Hughes, another longshot to make the pen, also threw a 1-2-3 inning. It’s possible both Richards and Hughes wind up at Iowa as bullpen reinforcements.

The Cubs couldn’t score in the top of the ninth, and the Giants did get runners to first and third with one out in the bottom of the inning, but Cubs minor leaguer Chris Kachmar got Max Stassi to ground into a game-ending double play to preserve the tie.

The Cubs had plenty of chances in this game, as I noted above. They wound up 0-for-13 with RISP and left 13 men on base. Of course, very few Cubs regulars played in this game so I wouldn’t read much into that.

The Cubs return to Sloan Park Thursday to face the Angels. Jordan Wicks will start for the Cubs. At this writing the Angels don’t have a starter listed for Thursday, but we do know this: It won’t be Kyle Hendricks, who started Monday. Hopefully The Professor will at least accompany the Angels to Sloan Park so he can get some recognition from Cubs fans. Game time Thursday is 2:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network, with a radio broadcast from the Angels radio team.