{"id":99978,"date":"2025-05-04T19:26:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T23:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=99978"},"modified":"2025-05-04T19:26:40","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T23:26:40","slug":"cubs-shota-imanaga-exits-game-hamstring-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/04\/cubs-shota-imanaga-exits-game-hamstring-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Shota Imanaga Exits Brewers Game With Hamstring Strain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MILWAUKEE \u2014 Chicago Cubs ace <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/i\/imanash01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shota Imanaga<\/a> left Sunday\u2019s 4-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field in the sixth inning with an apparent injury, later diagnosed as a left hamstring strain. The injury occurred when Imanaga, 31, hustled to cover first base on a grounder by <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/08\/27\/christian-yelich-sights-set-2025\/\" target=\"_self\">Christian Yelich<\/a>. Attempting to complete a 3-6-1 double play, he arrived at first base in discomfort, grabbing the back of his left leg after Yelich beat the throw. Imanaga limped off the field after a visit from manager <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/09\/20\/craig-counsell-acknowledges-big-gap-between-brewers-cubs\/\" target=\"_self\">Craig Counsell<\/a> and trainers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Shota Imanaga left the game after an apparent injury following this play. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dZJXzSeEoS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/dZJXzSeEoS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WatchMarquee\/status\/1919117687239696504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Shota Imanaga Suffers Hamstring Injury vs. Brewers<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Cubs announced the strain postgame, and Imanaga was scheduled for an MRI on Monday to determine the severity. \u201cWe\u2019ll know more after imaging, but it\u2019s concerning,\u201d Counsell said after the game. Imanaga, who left his prior start against the Pittsburgh Pirates with leg cramps, faces a probable stint on the injured list. No definitive return timeline exists at this time, but hamstring strains usually require anywhere from two to six weeks, pending MRI results.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Craig Counsell provided an update on Shota Imanaga after exiting today\u2019s game with a left hamstring strain. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/N6vBwy2ju3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/N6vBwy2ju3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WatchMarquee\/status\/1919135345024586159?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Filling Out the Cubs Rotation<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imanaga\u2019s 2.77 ERA and 3-2 record in his second major league season anchor a rotation already missing its co-ace <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/13\/cubs-justin-steele-out-2025-season\/\" target=\"_self\">Justin Steele<\/a>, who is out for the season following elbow surgery. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/flexech01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Flexen<\/a>, recently called up from Triple-A, has an opportunity to take Imanaga\u2019s spot, serving as either a starter or long reliever. The No. 48\u00a0 prospect in MLB&#8217;s Top 100, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/milb\/prospects\/top100\/cade-horton-690990\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cade Horton<\/a>, is also pushing to get the call to the majors. So far in Triple-A, Horton has posted a 1.17 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 23 innings. Imanaga, a 2024 All-Star, threw 5 2\/3 scoreless innings before exiting, but the Brewers rallied against reliever <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/merryju01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Julian Merryweather<\/a> in a four-run sixth inning. They held on for the shutout win.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Michael McLoone-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MILWAUKEE \u2014 Chicago Cubs ace Shota Imanaga left Sunday\u2019s 4-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field in the sixth inning with an apparent injury, later diagnosed as a left hamstring strain. The injury occurred when Imanaga, 31, hustled to cover first base on a grounder by Christian Yelich. Attempting to complete a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5310,"featured_media":99981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1071,35],"tags":[3671,5020,2238,2513,28614,5933,645,28268],"class_list":["post-99978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","category-mlb","category-news","tag-cade-horton","tag-chris-flexen","tag-craig-counsell","tag-injured-list","tag-julian-merryweather","tag-justin-steele","tag-nl-central","tag-shota-imanaga"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99978"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99982,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99978\/revisions\/99982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}