Yesterday marked the first time two Japanese-born players had faced each other at Wrigley Field as Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched against Seiya Suzuki. Sunday will be the second such tilt, just flipped around with Shota Imanaga and Shohei Ohtani squaring off. It’s kind of wild that Yu Darvish was never part of such a matchup, right?
Imanaga has a slightly taller task than when he faced the Rockies in his Cubs debut, so I’m not sure we should expect a repeat of that performance. He was masterful over six shutout innings, striking out nine with no walks and allowing just two hits.