History: Shota Imanaga, Nate Pearson, Porter Hodge, Miguel Amaya No-Hit Pirates

[Matthew Trueblood]

The secret about no-hitters is that they were never the manly feats of strength crusty baseball writers told you they were. That world was phony and bigoted and never real. We all depend on each other. We succeed, or fail, by working together. Wednesday night, the Cubs succeeded together.

Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

It's bittersweet to see a pitcher pulled from a no-hitter. In a perfect world, where Tommy John surgery never had to be invented and where hurlers paid no price for the turn of the lineup card, we might never see it happen. Here in the real world, though, it's part of the game--and not a bad one. It's just how life is. So, after taking by far the longest leg in the relay, Shota Imanaga handed the baton to his bullpen for the final two innings Wednesday night. They sewed up a monumental achievement--one which can't belong to Imanaga, alone, but never should have, anyway.

Outs aren't collected by lone wolves. Even a pitcher who plows through a lineup with strikeout after strikeout has to thank his coaches, and especially his catcher, for the support he got in that process: a pitch perfectly framed here, an unusual sequence the scouting report said would work there. Much mopre often, as on Wednesday night, it's not like that, anyway. The ball leaves the hurler's hand with plenty of life and terrific command, but it doesn't stop and disappear at home plate. It gets lined, grounded, and flied around the park, and if a team is working as one; if there's enough defensive talent behind the pitcher that night; and sometimes, if the official scorer can justify it, then a no-hitter grows out of it all.

Had Isaac Paredes had a better night at third base, Imanaga might have gone another inning. Paredes committed three more errors, during a run in which his glovework at the hot corner has been a nightmare. Just as great defenses pick up the pitcher to preserve many a no-hitter, though, Imanaga picked up Paredes, over and over. He outwitted and overwhelmed the Pirates, and he continued his vital evolution as a big-league starter.

For much of the season, Imanaga has been basically a two-pitch pitcher: four-seamer, splitter, four-seamer, splitter. It's a testament to the quality of those offerings that, more than a few times, he's looked this dominant in games using only that pairing. Increasingly, though, teams have come prepared for it, and they've made him pay for the elective shallowness of his arsenal.

Lately, he's been adjusting. That was on full display Wednesday night. Imanaga threw a career-high eight sinkers, plus six changeups (a distinct pitch from his splitter and another relatively recent addition) and six sweepers, in addition to 42 fastballs and 33 splitters. 

Miguel Amaya deserves a healthy share of the credit for that, too. He coaxed Imanaga through a couple of jams, and got him dotting that sinker a couple of times for key strikes. It's a sign of Amaya's ongoing maturation behind the plate that he was able to catch his way to a no-hitter; that achievement belongs in equal share to the catcher, any time it happens.

This might be the last great highlight of the Cubs' season. There is, too, still a minuscule but non-zero chance that it will be remembered as a galvanizing moment amid their late charge back into the playoff race. For tonight, none of that matters. Neither does Imanaga's departure from the contest. The game was a celebration and a triumph for a team that has done plenty of good things this year, especially in terms of run prevention. So far, the risky but fun acquisition of Nate Pearson has paid off gorgeously. Porter Hodge is having a rookie season to remember. It's wonderful that all three hurlers, and Amaya and some of the defenders, too, got to concelebrate this feat. They put themselves in the history books, where the purists can moan and derogate them but never erase them. It was a great night for Cubs baseball.

 

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