by CHICAGO (AP) — All-Star Pete Crow-Armstrong hit his 26th homer, one of five solo shots for the Cubs to back seven sharp innings by Shota Imanaga, and Chicago beat the Boston Red Sox 6-0 on Saturday night.
Michael Busch, Kyle Tucker, Matt Shaw and Ian Happ also connected for the Cubs, who moved a season-best 20 games over .500 and have the best record in the majors at 59-39.
Imanaga (7-3) allowed five hits, struck out five, walked one and lowered his ERA to 2.40. The 31-year-old, second-year left-hander from Japan improved to 22-6 in the majors.
Busch and Tucker led off the game with back-to-back homers against Brayan Bello (6-4). Shaw had a pinch-hit homer in the seventh against reliever Chris Murphy, and Crow-Armstrong and Happ went back-to-back against Murphy in the eighth.
Brad Keller struck out the side in the eighth and Ryan Brasier worked the ninth for his first save since 2023 with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
With two outs in the seventh, Imanaga allowed back-to-back singles to Masataka Yoshida and Abraham Toro, and Yoshida took third on Imanaga’s throwing error. Imanaga induced a shallow fly ball from Connor Wong to end the inning.
The Cubs went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.
Garrett Crochet (10-4, 2.23 ERA) will try to help the Red Sox avoid a three-game sweep on Sunday. The Cubs had not announced a starter.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
