Enhanced Box Score: Cubs 7, Red Sox 1 - April 26, 2024 - Bleacher Nation

Cubs win again! And it was a breezy 7-1 road victory over the Red Sox … perfect for a relaxing Friday night. I don't think it'll be this easy forever, but the Cubs are really buying themselves some breathing room here, stacking all these wins while so many key players are out injured. It's really nice.

Kutter Crawford, who came into this game with an ERA even lower than Shota Imanaga, wasn't able to shut the Cubs offense down completely tonight, but you can definitely see why he's been so succesful. He's got a funky delivery and good deception and even the Cubs recorded 10 hits, he didn't walk any batters, netted 12 whiffs, and still went 6.0 innings with just three earned runs.

But that Cubs offense, man, they just grinded and grinded and grinded, pushing across runs the old fashioned way: stringing together hits, stealing bases, advancing on wild pitches, sac flys, squeeze bunts, and so on. It's not often you score 7 runs with only two extra base hits (both doubles). They were scrappy and it was pleasant. Probably a miserable night for Red Sox fans.

Defensively, there was a lot going on, ranging from bad to neutral to good to awesome: Dansby Swanson made a throwing error, Chris Morel came up short on a couple of tough plays (not sure he could've done anything), Michael Busch couldn't quite glove a couple bouncers (ditto), Nico Hoerner made yet another solid leaping grab (he's got great timing), and Shota Imanaga made an excellent glove toss on an attempted bunt-hit.

And, indeed, the star of the show was once again Shota Imanaga, who was just absolutely excellent. The way he works north to south, with his four-seamer up and splitter down, is clearly just so challenging for opposing hitters. They either whiff or pop it up. And the fact that he mixes in the occasional sweeper (and even rarer curveball) keeps them honest. You could tell right from the start, when he was locating that fastball just perfectly atop the zone, that he was going to have another good night. So impressive.

He pitched a Cubs season-long 6.1 innings tonight, bringing his ERA down to 0.98 over five starts.

Great game, great win. That's four in a row.

Full Box Score.

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Michael Cerami began covering the Chicago Cubs for Bleacher Nation as a part-time contributor in 2015. One year later, he joined Bleacher Nation full-time, covering the Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball. Today, Michael runs Bleacher Nation, contributing as a writer (Cubs, MLB) and an editor for all sections of the site, including the Chicago Bears, Bulls, and Blackhawks, as well as MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL. In 2019, Michael was the co-host of NBC Sports Chicago's Cubs Post-Game Show Outside the Ivy. You can find him on Twitter/X @Michael_Cerami