Chicago Cubs Score and Recap (7/31/26): Yankees 2, Cubs 0 – Yanks Pitch Shutout at Wrigley
The Cubs and Yankees began their series on a cloudy Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field. The home team could not get their offense into gear all day long, and they went down in a shutout defeat.
Shōta Imanaga was on his game Friday, but he was matched pitch for pitch by New York starter Will Warren. The Chicago left-hander made his first mistake in the top of the 4th when Amed Rosario hit a solo shot to put the road squad ahead 1-0.
The Yanks doubled the lead to 2-0 when Spencer Jones took Imanaga deep in the top of the 5th. The North Siders’ hitters could do almost nothing against Warren and the bullpen the rest of the way as they lost by the same 2-0 margin. (Box score)
Key Moment
The Cubs got two men on base with two outs in the bottom of the 7th, bringing Nico Hoerner to the plate as the potential go-ahead run. Hoerner hit a ground ball to shortstop and Ian Happ was originally called safe, beating out the force attempt at second base to load the bases. The Yankees challenged and the call was reversed to an out that ended the threat.
Why the Cubs Lost
The lineup was completely shut down and a pretty good pitching performance went for naught.
Stats That Matter
- Imanaga was very good outside of the two mistakes on the homers: 6.2 IP, 2 R, 4 H, 6 K, and 0 BB.
- Pedro Ramírez had a pair of singles.
Bottom Line
This was just an afternoon when the Cubs could not do anything with the bats. It’s frustrating, but there’s not much that you can do. Hopefully, it’s more of an isolated incident and not the start of a trend.
On Deck
Game two of the series is Saturday night at 6:15pm CT. David Peterson takes the hill against Max Fried in a contest televised exclusively on FOX with a radio feed available on The Score.
