“It Is a Little Difficult”: Amidst a Record-Breaking Debut, Shota Imanaga Reveals How the MLB Hitters Left Him Surprised

Usually, a few token phrases bombard any foreign player’s arrival. “Adjustment” and “figuring out” are the most spoken phrases regarding their development. And that is for a good reason. After all, the sheer level of competition in MLB is incomparable to any other league in the world. But that’s exactly what makes Shota Imanaga so special. Instead of just “adjusting”, the Chicago Cubs ace is excelling. But how is he doing that?

Popularly known as the Philosopher, Imanaga has a wealth of knowledge about the ballgame. The Cubs’ pitcher is not only an expert on the mound but also has very acute observational skills. That is perhaps one of the biggest reasons why Imanaga hasn’t found it difficult to travel from Japan to the US without much loss in his quality. However, the process hasn’t been easy as Imanaga too noted the sheer difference in quality that NPB and MLB have.

Pat McAfee asked Shota Imanaga about his experience in the US and how different it was from Japan. To this, the philosopher replied, “The guys I faced during the WBC, I could recognize them as the guys who are in the World Series. But when it comes to attacking the hitters, it is a little difficult. The way the MLB players swing and the way the Japanese player swing, they’re different. So I’m just getting adjusted to it.”

So what is the difference that Imanaga was talking about? The pitching philosopher specifically referred to the MLB hitters’ extraordinary depth and attacking mindset. “On the inside pitch, instead of being a base hit, they’ll hit it for extra-base hits, a double or a home-run. There are players like that in Japan but over here its really one through nine it’s the whole lineup. I was very surprised by that,” Imanaga said via his interpreter Edwin Stanberry.

But while that quality surprised Shota Imanaga, it seems it didn’t bother him so much on the field. The superstar’s pitching wizardry has continuously left batters bamboozled.

Can Shota Imanaga create history? 

Even though 2/3rd of the season is left, one can’t help but wonder what would happen if Shota Imanaga maintains this form. The Chicago Cubs superstar has already broken the record of the lowest ERA by a pitcher in their first nine career games in the modern era (starting from 1920) with 0.84 ERA. Before him, Montreal Expos’ Steve Rogers (1.20 ERA in 1973) held this record.

Now imagine if Imanaga somehow manages to keep this ERA intact. The lowest ERA in modern baseball is 1.12 by the Cardinals legend Bob Gibson in 1968 (per Sporting News).  Can Imanaga get near that number? Once again, with 2/3rd of the season remaining all of this is speculation. But the fact that we’re even having this speculation shows just how surprising Shota Imanaga’s rise has been.