Counsell explains 'proactive move' to push Shota's start back

ST. LOUIS -- Cubs manager Craig Counsell is constantly balancing the game in front of him with the rigors of a long season. He once again put that approach on display in his handling of Shota Imanaga’s schedule when rain washed away Friday night’s game against the Cardinals.

The Cubs could have pushed Imanaga’s outing back by one day and had him start on Saturday at Busch Stadium. Counsell instead saw the rainout as an opportunity to offer the rookie sensation some extra rest, opting to move his start back to Wednesday against the Brewers in Milwaukee.

“This is a proactive move,” Counsell said prior to Saturday’s game. “And it’s really about the innings during the course of the season. We’re tracking towards 170ish innings, and just trying to know that that’s the number. And know that there are very few spots in the schedule where you have a chance to maybe use the schedule to your advantage. This was one of them.”

The Cubs have already taken a relatively conservative approach to the 30-year-old Imanaga’s workload on the front-end of his first Major League season. While the lefty paces baseball in ERA (0.84) right now, he entered Saturday ranked 64th in innings pitched (53 2/3). Imanaga logged 159 total innings last year in Japan.

While pitching in Japan, Imanaga was accustomed to pitching every sixth day, compared to the five-day routine that is more common among MLB arms. So far this season, the left-hander has started with four days of rest just twice, while making most of his starts (five) with five days of rest. He has started two games with six-plus days between outings.

“He is making a transition to a different league, to a different travel schedule, to a different culture,” Counsell said. “Know that that puts more on him. And that, like I’ve said, if we can just take a small piece and do some things to refill the tank, so to speak, that in the long run, it could be beneficial.”

Imanaga was loosening up in the visitors’ bullpen on Friday night -- preparing to do his pregame throwing routine -- when pitching coach Tommy Hottovy alerted the pitcher that it was time to head inside.

“I was like, ‘Was I doing something wrong or something?’” Imanaga joked via his interpreter Edwin Stanberry.

They explained to Imanaga that the game was entering a rain delay, which developed into the postponement with a makeup game set for July 13 (day-night doubleheader). Counsell then walked through the plan to move the pitcher’s start back to the following series in Milwaukee.

“I think maybe he was a little surprised by it,” Counsell said. “He is feeling good.”

Imanaga was on board with Counsell’s decision.

“Craig and I talked about how it's going to be a long season,” Imanaga said. “And not just this season, we've still got next year and the year after that. So it's just thinking about that, and we had the opportunity with the rainout, so we'll just move on to the next.”

When Imanaga does take the hill next, he will have a chance to keep his historic start to this season going.

The lefty’s ERA is already the lowest through a player's first nine career starts (excluding openers) since 1913, when earned runs became an official statistic in both leagues. He topped the previous record of 0.91, which was set by Dodgers rookie phenom Fernando Valenzuela in his magical 1981 season.

Steve Rogers has the lowest ERA through a pitcher’s first 10 career starts with the 1.19 mark he fashioned during the 1973 season with the Expos. That is the next target for Imanaga, who has 58 strikeouts with nine walks to go with his 5-0 record so far for the Cubs.

“I'm not really feeling tired,” Imanaga said. “I feel like tiredness and stress kind of goes hand in hand. And the Cubs organization, and being around my teammates and the staff, I feel like they really do help with lowering the stress levels. So I'm feeling great.”