{"id":42575,"date":"2025-10-02T05:02:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T09:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/machado-punishes-imanaga-clutch-hr-defines-padres-victory-over-cubs\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T05:02:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T09:02:42","slug":"machado-punishes-imanaga-clutch-hr-defines-padres-victory-over-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/mlb\/machado-punishes-imanaga-clutch-hr-defines-padres-victory-over-cubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Machado Punishes Imanaga: Clutch HR Defines Padres&#8217; Victory Over Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"CHICAGO &#8211; Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell defended his decision to keep left-hander Shota Imanaga on the mound to face right-handed Manny Machado in the fifth inning of the second game of the National League Wild Card Series against the San Diego Padres.\n\nMachado connected on a splitter on the first pitch, resulting in a two-run homer, extending the Padres&#8217; lead to 3-0, the final score of the game.\n\nThe decisive game number 3 will take place at Wrigley Field on Thursday.\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>The results suggest we should have done something different. Really, just trust in Shota, plain and simple. I thought he was throwing well. I thought he was throwing very well and, unfortunately, he made a mistake.<\/p><cite>Craig Counsell<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nThe decision was made after Fernando Tatis Jr. received a walk and advanced to second base following a sacrifice bunt by Luis Arraez, which resulted in a free base. Counsell mentioned that he intentionally considered walking Machado, but ultimately opted for Imanaga to pitch to him.\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Walking Machado wasn&#8217;t on my mind. That splitter was meant to be down in the zone.<\/p><cite>Shota Imanaga<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/a.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2025%2F1002%2Fr1554184_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><figcaption>El m\u00e1nager de los Cachorros, Craig Counsell, dijo que consider\u00f3 caminar a Manny Machado con una base libre, pero decidi\u00f3 que Shota Imanaga le lanzara. &#8220;Pens\u00e9 que estaba lanzando muy bien y, desafortunadamente, cometi\u00f3 un error&#8221;, dijo Counsell.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nCounsell had right-hander Mike Soroka ready in the bullpen, but decided not to use him. This was a curious decision, considering the Cubs used a starter in Game 2, looking for Imanaga to avoid facing Tatis and Machado in the first inning.\n\nMachado, when asked if he was surprised to face Imanaga in that situation, replied: &#8220;I don&#8217;t put on my manager&#8217;s hat. It was 0-6 at that moment. So I wasn&#8217;t thinking about that. For me, I was just thinking about trying to get to Imanaga.&#8221;\n\nThe Padres manager, Mike Shildt, commented: &#8220;I have my hands full with my own team. I can&#8217;t be thinking about anyone else&#8217;s strategy.&#8221;\n\nThe Game 3 will be played on Thursday, where the winner takes it all. The Padres will have Yu Darvish, while Jameson Taillon will be the Cubs&#8217; starter.\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I&#8217;m excited. As Game 2 went on, I started getting excited for tomorrow. You do a lot of work during the season for the big moments. I&#8217;m looking forward to it.<\/p><cite>Jameson Taillon<\/cite><\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHICAGO &#8211; Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell defended his decision to keep left-hander Shota Imanaga on the mound to face right-handed Manny Machado in the fifth inning of the second game of the National League Wild Card Series against the San Diego Padres. Machado connected on a splitter on the first pitch, resulting in a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[312,87,3516,1221],"class_list":{"0":"post-42575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-mlb","7":"tag-cubs","8":"tag-home-run","9":"tag-manny-machado","10":"tag-parents"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}