Baseball: Cubs' Imanaga wins 3rd straight decision

Shota Imanaga earned his third straight winning decision at the start of his Major League Baseball career after holding the Miami Marlins to three runs over six innings in the Chicago Cubs’ 5-3 win.

Imanaga (3-0) allowed five hits and struck out that many in the second game of a doubleheader at Wrigley Field. The former DeNA BayStars lefty had yielded no earned runs in his previous three starts with the Cubs, winning two.

He gave up his first MLB earned run in the two-run fourth when Marlins cleanup hitter Tim Anderson doubled in a run. Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with an RBI single to give them a 2-1 lead. Josh Bell slugged a solo shot in the sixth off Imanaga, but the Cubs scored four runs in the home half to retake the lead.

“Pitches I thought weren’t good definitely got hit, and ones I thought were good were fouled off or taken,” said Imanaga, who expressed relief at yielding his first earned run.

“I’ve been freed from that spell, so can pitch more relaxed next game,” he said.

Masataka Yoshida hit a two-run home run and went 3-for-4 for the Boston Red Sox in a 4-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was his 150 career homer, with 133 in Japan’s majors and 17 in America’s.

With his team leading 2-1 in the sixth inning, the former Orix Buffalo went deep over the right-center field at PNC Park off Mitch Keller’s first-pitch sinker for his second homer this year.

“The ball had a nice trajectory and the outfield wind was also in my favor,” Yoshida said. “I try to be aggressive from the first pitch whenever it’s a fat one.”

Yoshida singled in the first and doubled in the eighth for his first three-hit game of the season.

Shohei Ohtani, meanwhile, remained tied with Hideki Matsui for most MLB homers by a Japanese player at 175 after going 1-for-2 with his MLB-leading 11th double, three walks and a run in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 6-4 loss against the New York Mets.

“I never go to the plate aiming to hit a home run,” said Ohtani, who struck out swinging with the bases loaded in the sixth.

“Of course I want to get the next one, but I’m not worried about the record. Having good at-bats is what’s important.”