Pirates beat Cubs, 2-0, despite Imanaga's six no-hit innings

Colin Beazley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Apr 10, 2026

Published in Baseball

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CHICAGO — The Pirates have tried a few different strategies against Shota Imanaga, the Cubs lefty who has historically dominated the Pirates.

On Friday afternoon, they tried something new: simply waiting until he left the game.

Imanaga threw six no-hit innings, but the Pirates jumped on reliever Caleb Thielbar as soon as Imanaga was pulled en route to a 2-0 victory at Wrigley Field. The Pirates had just one baserunner in Imanaga’s 100 pitches but had two on the first four Thielbar threw: a leadoff single from Ryan O’Hearn and Bryan Reynolds’ two-run homer.

The win was the Pirates’ first shutout victory of the season after racking up an MLB-best 19 last year. Carmen Mlodzinski, Mason Montgomery, Isaac Mattson, Gregory Soto and Dennis Santana combined for the shutout.

Mlodzinski started for the Pirates and threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings. He wasn’t as dominant as Imanaga was, allowing six hits and walking three, but he consistently found ways to get himself out of trouble. He ended the first and second innings with double plays and stranded the bases loaded in the fourth.

He’s not quite as dominant against the Cubs as Imanaga is against the Pirates (one allowed run in 32 innings, good for an 0.28 ERA), but Mlodzinski has pitched well against the Pirates’ NL Central rivals. He has a 1.40 ERA in 25 2/3 innings against the Cubs.

The Cubs had their best chance of the game in the sixth. After Alex Bregman and Ian Happ started the inning with back-to-back singles, Mlodzinski struck out Seiya Suzuki before he was pulled with lefty Pete Crow-Armstrong due up. Montgomery struck out Crow-Armstrong, walked Carson Kelly to load the bases, then struck out pinch-hitter Matt Shaw to strand all three.

It was over when …

... Santana ended it with a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save of the year. He struck out Dansby Swanson to start the inning and Michael Busch to clinch it.

On the mound

The Pirates lined up their bullpen as they’d hoped for, as they were able to use Mattson, Soto and Santana in the final three innings.

Soto did walk two batters, bringing the go-ahead run to the plate in Shaw. But he got him to fly weakly to right, ending the threat. He has a 1.08 ERA this year.

At the plate

The lone baserunner the Pirates had against Imanaga came on an impressive nine-pitch walk from Oneil Cruz in the second. Even still, it was nearly for naught: ball four, if challenged, likely would have been strike three. Cruz added a single off lefty Thielbar in the seventh to increase his hitting streak to nine games.

The Pirates had just three hits, all against Thielbar.

Most valuable player

Reynolds provided the winner, but Imanaga was truly impressive. He struck out nine and dominated, though his efforts came in a loss.

Up next

The Pirates and Cubs continue their three-game series at 2:20 p.m. Saturday. Braxton Ashcraft (1-1, 2.25 ERA) will start against Cubs right-hander Edward Cabrera (1-0, 0.00). Cabrera, acquired from the Miami Marlins in January, has given up just two hits in two starts (11 2/3 innings) to start his Cubs career.