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Shota Imanaga will have a tough act to follow when he takes the mound on Sunday afternoon for the Chicago Cubs against the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers.

After Los Angeles’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto stymied Chicago with eight strikeouts over five scoreless innings in the Dodgers’ 4-1 win on Saturday, Imanaga (1-0, 0.00 ERA) will look to replicate his countryman’s strong performance in the rubber match of the teams’ three-game series.

Yamamoto and Imanaga joined their respective major league clubs this past offseason after starring in Japan’s professional league.

In his third career start on Saturday, Yamamoto worked around some traffic on the bases in the early innings to cool off one of the league’s hottest offenses and earn his first MLB win.

Half of Yamamoto’s eight punchouts came with the bases loaded. The Cubs struck out three straight times in the first inning after the first three batters reached. Yamamoto then froze Cody Bellinger with the bases loaded to end the second inning.

“At the beginning I was struggling a little bit, but that was because I was falling behind in the count,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter, per MLB.com. “But after that, I got to bounce back, and then in the fourth and fifth inning, I thought I was great.”

Chicago, which entered Saturday averaging seven runs per game, tied with the Atlanta Braves for the most in the majors, scored its fewest runs this season and struck out a season-high 15 times. The Cubs finished 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position on Saturday after going 3-for-5 in Friday’s 9-7 win over the Dodgers.

“In the first two innings, we just couldn’t break through,” Chicago manager Craig Counsell said. “(Yamamoto) kind of got into a rhythm, which is … what happens against the good ones, right? You gotta break through when you get those shots.”

Matching Yamamoto’s stout outing will require Imanaga to stymie a Los Angeles offense that features six hitters who have a multi-hit game in the series. Shohei Ohtani has collected two hits in each of his past three games and is batting .462 with two home runs and four RBIs during that span.

Yesterday’s four-run output ended the Dodgers’ bid at major league history. Los Angeles had scored at least five runs in each of its first 10 games this season, tied for the league’s second-longest streak since 1900.

But if his MLB debut on Monday is any indication, Imanaga, 30, won’t be intimidated by the Dodgers’ offense.

The left-hander took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and piled up nine strikeouts without walking a batter to secure the win in a 5-0 Cubs victory over the visiting Colorado Rockies. He finished by giving up only two hits.

“It was clear that this is a player who’s been in big moments,” Counsell said of Imanaga on Monday. “He’s been through this before and, again, that was part of what went into all this.”

Los Angeles will send Gavin Stone (0-0, 5.40 ERA) to the mound on Sunday after the right-hander earned a no-decision in his first start of the season on March 31 against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals.

Stone allowed three runs on seven hits while striking out six and walking one over five innings against St. Louis. The 25-year-old has never faced the Cubs.

–Field Level Media