Shota Imanaga 2026 — Today's Stats & Game Log

Third straight rough start as Imanaga's strikeouts vanish

Imanaga had a tough night in St. Louis, allowing five earned runs on five hits over 5.1 innings for an outing ERA of 8.82. That sits well above his season marks of a 4.37 ERA and a tidy 1.07 WHIP, and it extends a worrying trend: across his last three starts he has surrendered 5, 7, and 8 earned runs, totaling 20 earned over just 15.2 innings. The stability that defined his April is clearly gone for the moment.

The most telling number is the strikeout collapse. Imanaga's value is built on swing-and-miss ability, the kind that produced 11 strikeouts on April 16 and a no-hit, nine-strikeout gem on April 11. Tonight he managed only two strikeouts over 5.1 innings, a dramatic drop from the 69 he has banked this season. Detailed pitch-mix data was not logged for this start, so I will avoid firm conclusions on specific offerings, but a strikeout rate this low strongly suggests his put-away pitch was catching too much plate and inviting contact rather than chases. On the platoon side, his splits show a mild lean: right-handed hitters are batting .214 with a .679 OPS against him, while lefties sit at .227 with a .746 OPS, a gap of .067 in OPS. It is modest, but lineups stacked with left-handed bats warrant attention.

Unico's note: this looks like a command-and-strikeout issue rather than a loss of raw stuff, which means it is fixable. If his first-pitch strike rate and whiff rate bounce back to April levels next time out, I expect a steady regression toward that true-talent 4.37 ERA. I would watch his early-count execution closely in the next start.