Cubs 1, Pirates 0: Shōta Imanaga is brilliant again, and a walkoff after a review

Great starting pitching by Shōta Imanaga, yet again. The Cubs get some solid relief pitching, for once, and then after hardly generating any offense at all for eight innings, the Cubs walk it off 1-0 on a Christopher Morel RBI single — but not until after a replay review.

Imanaga walked the first hitter of the game, Andrew McCutchen, then retired 11 straight Pirates until an infield single with two out in the fourth. Those 11 straight outs included this slick play by Miles Mastrobuoni [VIDEO].

The Cubs couldn't do anything with Bailey Falter, either. A leadoff walk by Christopher Morel wound up erased on a double play, and then when a little popup into right by Patrick Wisdom fell among several Pirates for the first Cubs hit, Wisdom inexplicably decided to try for second. He was out... easily [VIDEO].

Clearly, Wisdom thought he could make it but in a time when Cubs offense is hard to find, giving up a baserunner is not such a good idea.

But Imanaga continued to mow down Pirates. He allowed another infield hit in the sixth and then in the seventh, two solid singles after two out. You could tell he was about done. Imanaga struck out Michael A. Taylor to finish the seventh to a loud ovation. He threw 88 pitches, 68 for strikes. I don't believe he got to a three-ball count after McCutchen in the first. Here are the seven K's [VIDEO].

I just can't say enough about how terrific Imanaga has been as a pitcher, and also how he has embraced the city of Chicago and Cubs fan culture. What a great signing.

Here's what Imanaga's outing today accomplished, from BCB's JohnW53:

With his seven scoreless innings, Shota Imanaga's ERA stands at 0.84 — the lowest ever in the first nine MLB starts by a pitcher who was not an "opener." Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers held the previous record of 0.91 in 1981. Imanaga has pitched 53⅔ innings. Valenzuela pitched 79 innings, beginning with eight complete games.

Mark Leiter Jr. threw the eighth, and continued his fine season by striking out all three Pirates he faced.

In the bottom of the eighth, after Mike Tauchman struck out, Ian Happ walked (thus continuing his on-base streak as a starting player vs. the Pirates, now at 65 games). Then Nick Madrigal singled Happ to third.

Hark! The lead run on third base with one out!

Unfortunately, Happ was erased on this contact play [VIDEO].

The contact play rarely works, but you still see it used all the time. Sigh. After Michael Busch drew a pinch-walk, loading the bases, Wisdom struck out to end the inning.

Hector Neris, who has thrown much better lately, set the Pirates down in order in the top of the ninth, including a pair of strikeouts.

Seiya Suzuki led off the bottom of the ninth with a fly to center. Cody Bellinger followed with this double that bounced into the seats [VIDEO].

Nice piece of two-strike hitting there, incidentally.

That brought up Morel, and then on a 3-2 pitch, this happened [VIDEO].

That clip doesn't tell the whole story. You can see Bellinger's foot touch the plate before any tag, and then the ball falls out of Joey Bart's mitt, Belli clearly safe. Of course, on a play like that the Pirates are going to use their challenge. Why not? Nothing to lose.

Here's the clip from the Pirates video feed [VIDEO].

It was ruled "call confirmed." The Pirates announcers didn't like it, but it appeared Bellinger touched the plate before he was tagged, and whatever happened with the baseball after that didn't really matter.

The whole game took two hours, 10 minutes in front of a full house on a beautiful day, and the Cubs won on a walkoff. What could be better?

And the Cubs have still not lost more than two games in a row this year.

The last time before today that the Cubs won 1-0 on a walkoff was September 28, 2015, an 11-inning win over the Royals, ended on a Chris Denorfia home run. Since 1901 it's just the 26th such Cubs game. Here are the other 25. — as you can see, there have now been just six such games at Wrigley Field since 1988.

The Cubs will go for the series split Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Jameson Taillon, the former Pirate, will face his old team on the mound for the Cubs. Mitch Keller will go for Pittsburgh. Game time is again 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.