TOKYO — Shota Imanaga shook his head in frustration.
The Chicago Cubs left-hander, known for his elite command, watched the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Max Muncy head to first base following two consecutive walks to open the second inning. Free passes were a rarity for Imanaga in his rookie season, owning the best strikeout-to-walk rate in the league.
Imanaga worked around the back-to-back walks to retire the next three batters, limiting damage as he so often did during his stellar rookie season. The Cubs collectively lacked crispness with their play on opening day in a 4-1 loss to Los Angeles in front of an overwhelmingly pro-Dodgers crowd among the 42,365 fans at the Tokyo Dome.
The Cubs pitching staff combined for eight walks, the defense committed two errors and the offense managed just three hits.
“I had two missions for this game: one, to have a good game and two was win the game,” Imanaga said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “I feel like the first mission I accomplished, the second mission I did not.”
Imanaga finished with a career-high four walks but avoided them coming back to hurt him during four shutout innings. In a much-anticipated matchup against Shohei Ohtani, Imanaga bested the slugger by retiring him twice; Ohtani is 0-for-7 in his career versus Imanaga.
“I thought he pitched excellent,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “Imanaga and (Yoshinobu) Yamamoto did a really good job handling the nerves at the start of the game.”
Walks rarely burned Imanaga last year. In 29 starts, the lefty recorded only two starts in which he walked more than two batters.
“I have always kept it in my mind to not give up too many walks,” Imanaga said. “But last season there were a couple times where because of that, the goal changed to not give up walks, which made for a tougher situation. So this time, even if an at-bat ended in a walk, try to get him next time and regroup and change my mindset.”
Right-hander Ben Brown had moments where he also struggled with his command in relief of Imanaga. Brown walked three batters in 2 ⅔ innings while surrendering three runs (two earned) and striking out five. A four-pitch walk to Andy Pages in the fifth proved to be the most costly to bring up Ohtani. The fan favorite singled to put runners on the corners with one out, helping spark the Los Angeles’ three-run frame.
“It made a difficult inning,” Counsell said of the Pages walk. “A key to this lineup is you have to be on the attack with them. Walks, they’re gonna burn you eventually. Eight walks is too many to win a baseball game.”
Miguel Amaya’s two-out double to center field scored Dansby Swanson to put the Cubs ahead in the second. The Cubs didn’t muster much beyond that offensively, managing only one more hit the rest of the game.
“I was looking for a pitch to make damage and get that RBI for the team,” Amaya said. “We didn’t get the result we wanted, but looking forward to getting more games and just keep competing.”
The Dodgers retired 16 consecutive hitters after Ian Happ’s leadoff single in the third until Jon Berti was hit by a pitch with one out in the eighth. The Cubs managed just three hits and five base runners in the loss.
Yamamoto’s fastball-splitter combination challenged Cubs hitters, who were frozen by the four-seamer (nine called strikes) and couldn’t create contact versus the splitter (nine whiffs).
“His splits were outstanding tonight, I mean, 93, 94 on the split finger, and just so many competitive,” Counsell said of the Dodgers pitcher. “It’s a pitch that you hope to get a couple free ones on because they’re out of the zone, but he just threw so many competitive splits at the bottom of the zone, going out of the strike zone. It’s a really tough pitch to lay off of, that’s why he’s a really good pitcher.”
The Dodgers erased the Cubs’ advantage with a three-run fifth. A one-out walk followed by consecutive singles by Ohtani and Tommy Edman tied the game, and a throwing error by Berti as he attempted to turn a double play at second base brought home the go-ahead run. Will Smith’s two-out single to left field brought home an unearned run to give the Dodgers a 3-1 lead.
Brown worked around a sixth-inning jam to keep it a two-run game. A throwing error by third baseman Matt Shaw allowed Miguel Rojas to advance to second on his infield single, and Brown walked the next hitter, Pages. He recovered, though, to end it on a strikeout of Ohtani, who whiffed at a curveball down and out of the zone.
The Cubs turn to left-hander Justin Steele to try to earn the Tokyo Series split in Wednesday’s finale.
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