Shota Imanaga struck out a career-high 11 in winning his fifth straight start, Dansby Swanson hit a three-run homer while tying his season high with four RBIs and Chicago Cubs defeated the Oakland Athletics 9-2 on Monday night.

Chicago (77-73) remained five games behind the New York Mets (82-68) for the final NL wild card with 12 games remaining.

Imanaga (14-3) allowed five hits over six innings, including Brent Rooker’s 38th homer, a two run-drive in the third. The 31-year-old left-hander walked three and reached 14 wins for the first time as a professional in his first year in the majors after eight previous seasons in Japan.

“He’s a rookie and he’s really talented and good,” Chicago manager Craig Counsell said. “I hope there’s other things he’s got left to accomplish.”

Imanaga reached 166 1/3 innings for the season on Monday, topping his goal of throwing at least 162 in 2024.

“I’’m being honest, I’m not too concerned about the amount of wins I have,” Imanaga said through a translator. “I think it’s more important to help the team win.”

Imanaga got 11 of his 22 misses on split-finger fastballs.

“That pitch was super-effective,” Counsell said. “We though they were going to be aggressive to the fastball, so the split turned out to be a really good pitch tonight.”

Rooker went deep for the second straight game and added a single as Oakland lost its third straight. The previous two were at the White Sox, who had not won back-to-back games in nearly three months.

Isaac Paredes and Miguel Amaya each had three hits and drove in two runs in an 18-hit attack. Paredes is 14 for his last 29 (.483) with seven RBIs in his last eight games.

Seiya Suzuki had three hits, among seven Cubs starters with multi-hit games.