In a season full of ups and downs, the one constant the Cubs have been able to hang their hats on this season has been the player who actually entered the season with so many unknowns.

Shota Imanaga has been reliable and dominant practically the whole season — sure, he’s had a few bad starts, but every player will. Imanaga has stepped up and risen to the challenge time and time again for the Cubs — and Monday was no different.

Imanaga dazzled over 6 innings against the A’s, racking up a career-high 11 strikeouts while allowing just 2 runs.

“I’m trying to think of something [he] hasn’t handled well — I don’t know if I can think of anything,” manager Craig Counsell said before the Cubs’ 9-2 win over the A’s. “He’s passed every test and every kind of question that we’ve tried to ask even about him really, really well. But I think at the base of it is what Shota’s good at works. It works.

“And the other thing that he’s probably shown to us on such a consistent basis is just how good he is at what he’s good at.”

That’s using a rising 4-seam fastball, a knee-buckling splitter and pitchability to keep hitters on their toes. After allowing a 2-run home run to Brent Rooker in the 3rd inning, Imanaga brushed it off and struck out the next three hitters to end the inning.

Against an aggresive A’s lineup, that splitter was his bread and butter. Imanaga threw the pitch 23 times, per Baseball Savant, garnering 11 swings-and-misses on the pitch.

“Before the game, looking at the numbers, there’s a lot of guys who hit a lot of home runs and looking at their offense, they’re a good hitting team,” Imanaga said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “So I had a game plan going in, and then kind of saw what the other hitters were doing, and then made adjustments towards that.”

Imanaga leads the team in ERA (3.03), innings (166.1) and WHIP (1.03). his workload has been most impressive.

Coming over from Japan, the adjustment to pitching in a 5-man rotation and on shorter rest — pitchers usually pitch once a week in Japan — was the biggest question mark Imanaga faced. Throughout spring and early in the season, both Counsell and Imanaga were asked multiple times about that.

He’s emphatically answered those doubts.

“So, starting the year, I had the goal to throw 162 innings,” Imanaga said. “And everything was a first, with the ball being different, the mound, the pitch clock. So the goal also was to stay healthy.

“And I feel like I was able to do that thanks to Craig, thanks to the pitching coaches, just communication with them and everything that goes with that and so I think that helps.”

The 2-run homer was a blip in the radar thanks to an offense that exploded Monday night. The Cubs scored 6 runs in the opening 2 frames, including 5 in the 2nd to put the game to bed early. Dansby Swanson’s 3-run shot in the 2nd was the exclamation point on a strong offensive night for the Cubs.

Seven of the Cubs’ 9 starters had hits and 6 notched multi-hit games. For an offense that’s struggled for chunks of the season at Wrigley Field, Monday night was a welcome sight at the Friendly Confines.

The win keeps the Cubs’ faint playoff hopes alive — they’re 5 games back of the Mets, who won 2-1 on Monday, with 12 games to play.