If you thought that a comfortable 6-2 lead would give the Dodgers a well deserved sleepy win over the Cubs, then you probably haven’t been paying much attention. Why would the Dodgers do anything the easy way? After Tuesday night’s dreary 9-4 beatdown the Dodgers were looking to right the ship. Alex Wood looking for his fourth win took the mound. The Cubs countered with struggling Kyle Hendricks.
The Dodgers jumped out to an early lead with six runs in the first two frames. The Dodger bats did what they normally do, hitting jacks. The boys in blue hit three more home runs increasing their June total to 51. You would think with a four-run lead and more opportunities to score, the Dodgers would breeze to a laugher. Wouldn’t you know it, those darn pesky Cubs would rally to make the game interesting. At one point the Dodger lead was down to just a single run. Thankfully Kenley Jansen struck out Addison Russell with the tying run on third base en route to a 4-out save. The Dodgers beat the Cubs 7-5.
Cubs 5 10 2
Dodgers 7 12 0
WP-Wood-4-5
LP-Hendricks-5-8
SV-Jansen-21
HR-Contreras-6-Muncy-16-Pederson-11-Bellinger-16
It certainly wasn’t easy as Wood got off to a dreadful start. The Cubs got to Wood in the top of the first plating two runs on two hits. The red-hot Javier Baez doubled and scored on a two-run home run from Willson Contreras. The Chicago backstop hooked the ball inside the left field foul pole to put the Cubs up in the opening frame. Fortunately that would be Alex Wood’s only mistakes in a well pitched start. Wood settled down nicely to turn in a quality start. Wood would allow three earned runs on seven hits with six strikeouts over seven innings.
The Dodgers once again relied heavily on the long ball. The Dodgers hit three home runs in tonight’s win. They scored three runs in the bottom of the first and second innings. The Dodgers lit up poor Hendricks like a Christmas tree. This is definitely not the same pitcher that won an ERA title a couple of years ago and shut down the Dodgers in the NLCS. The Dodgers tagged Hendricks for six earned runs on eight hits over just 2.2 innings.
Max Muncy got the party started with a solo home run over the center field wall. Funny thing baseball is, the ball bounced back over the wall and grazed Albert Almora Jr. in the back of the head. This reminds me of Jose Canseco getting hit in the head in center field many years ago. Back to the present, after a Justin Turner walk, Cody Bellinger’s single to right sends Turner to third, but he was thrown out at the plate on an Enrique Hernandez grounder. Yasmani Grandal’s immediate two-run double put the Dodgers on top 3-2. Every Dodger had a hit tonight (except for poor Logan Forsythe) even Wood himself. In the bottom of the second Wood reached on a single and scored when Joc Pederson tattooed a Hendricks meatball halfway up the right field pavilions. Joc has now hit ten home runs in June. The Dodgers lead 5-2. Later in the inning there was a Muncy walk, a Turner single and Hernandez’s RBI single put the Dodgers ahead 6-2. The Dodgers scored six runs in twelve hits but it felt like the Dodgers should have and could have scored more. In fact they could have.
That’s because the Dodgers stranded a small army of runners on Wednesday night. They left the bases loaded in the fourth, two on in the sixth, the bases loaded again in the seventh, and one in the eighth. The stranded 13 runners on base and were 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position.
The Cubs snuck back into the game like the crew of ocean’s eleven. They scored one in the fifth on a Heyward infield single. The Dodgers were leading 6-3, for some reason they decided to remove Wood (after the seventh) and bring in Scott Alexander. The Cubs scored twice in the eighth to cut the lead to 6-5. The inning started off well with Alexander striking out Tommy La Stella. Heyward walked and Baez followed by rapping a single to right. Then Contreras doubled off the wall to plate both runners. Alexander would get Ben Zobrist to ground out. Contreras was now at third with two outs. The Dodgers tab Kenley Jansen to record a four-out save. He battled Addison Russell, and won striking him out to end the inning.
Cody Bellinger would give the Dodgers some needed insurance with a booming solo home run in the home half of the eighth. With the score 7-5 Dodgers, Jansen worked around a one-out single in the top of the ninth to close out the win for the Dodgers. It was mostly a fun night with Addison Russell making two errors on one play in hilarious fashion.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/1012193630671388672
On a side note, Matt Kemp was not available on Wednesday because he was serving his one-game suspension handed down by Major League baseball for his fracas with Ranger’s catcher Robinson Chirinos a couple of weeks ago. The Dodgers were without their best hitter and still hit three home runs and scored seven. I’m impressed. The series wraps up on Thursday afternoon with the semi-healthy Clayton Kershaw drawing Jose Quintana with first pitch scheduled for 12:10 PM PST.
I wouldn’t call Wood’s pitch to Contreras a mistake. Wood executed his pitch and it would probably be successful 99 times out of 100. Contreras swing was the 1.
“for some reason they decided to remove Wood”
I wonder what that reason (93 pitches, 27 batters faced) could have been?
Hendricks wasn’t good. We got lucky in that respect. He’s 5-8 with a 4.2 ERA. I wonder what’s going on with him. That ERA is a full run higher than his career average.
Can Kershaw throw 93 pitches and face 27 Cub hitters? I’ll take the under on both.
Badger
Your so right about Hendricks, he definitely was not on his game, and we were quite lucky because of that.
He is a pitcher that has to have pin point command, because his highest velocity fastball is 86, and that is why Orel said it wasn’t much to hit a high fastball that is at the most 86, and we know how much of a homer Orel is.
And most of our players didn’t get another hit in this game, after Hendricks was pulled, even though the second reliever that came in for the Cubs, had an ERA that was over 6.
And this is why I am concerned with our hitting, when it comes to good pitching.
Turner, Puig, and Cody, were the only hitters on this team, that got a hit after Hendricks was pulled, and to Puig’s credit, he got two more hits, after Hendricks was pulled.
And Cody hit a HR off a leftie reliever, that gave the team an extra run, to his credit.
I don’t think Hendricks is as good, because the umpires are not giving him those low strikes, like they did in the year he was so good, and when we faced him in the post season.
Most of the balls he threw yesterday were once called strikes, even though they were barely over the plate, and very low.
It will be interesting to see the adjustments the Rockies make on us, in the next series, because we whooped them pretty good in the last series against them, but it won’t be at Coors stadium, so it will be interesting.
Cody is now 10 for 23 in his last 23 at bats, and he has hit four HRs, hit in 8 runs, in his last six games.
And Cody is about the only hitter on this team, that has hit in the second part of June, not just the first part of June, when everyone was so hot.
Somebody compared Hendricks to Maddux. I can see that. The biggest difference between the two would be all those pitches on the black called balls last night would have been called strikes for Maddux. In fact, Maddux got another 2” on all the margins.
Badger
They probably took Wood out, because Roberts wanted to make sure Wood continues to stay healthy, more then anything else.
Badger———–That’s just Dummy being Dummy.
Package
Cody has really been doing well lately.
He is probably only one of the players that was hitting in the first two weeks of June, that is still hitting, in the last two weeks, of June.
He is 10 for 23, with 5 HRs, and he has hit in 8 runs in the last five games, , and he has the most RBIs on this team, in June.
MJ
You are absolutely correct. Cody has come alive and is doing well. I also see a spark in Turner, unfortunately Kemp is scrambling for sure. No hits today but hopefully he will be back on the beam soon. Muncy is doing a great job also.
OKC lost a double header to Nashville yesterday. They are still 12 games over .500. Farmer had 3 hits including a triple. Banuelos lost game 1 and Sborz lost game 2. Most impressive thing about Cody’s HR last night was that it was to Left field. He has homered off of lefty’s before so that was no surprise. Joc really tomahawked the ball he hit out last night. But the bullpen almost gave that game away. Kenley to the rescue. Save # 21. Here is a weird fact. Boxberger saved his 19th last night for the D-Backs. At one point he had 10 more saves than Kenley did, now he is 2 behind him. Buehler is activated for todays game and will be available out of the pen. Fields to the 10 day DL with a shoulder strain. Angels 3B Zack Cozart likely out for the year with a torn labrum that needs surgery. Game starts in 45 minutes.
Toles was the only player on the team, that had four hits in that doubleheader.
And Cody has also hit plenty of HRs to the opposite field too, but not to many lefties on this team, hit lefties like Cody and Muncy do with power.
And Cody’s HR was not off a 86 fastball either.
After 1 inning 0 for 2 RISP. No Ks, so, that’s a good thing.
So far. So good.
Kike and Muncey leading the way ahead of the Cubs. Just like we all anticipated months ago.
So far not so good.
Kershaw is not a $35 million pitcher this year and Buehler is throwing 97 mph batting practice. We are going to need a few more solo homers and a better than .200 batting average with runners in scoring position.
Oh, nice bunt Javy. That’s there whenever you want it.
Kershaw is definitely not worth $35million and hasn’t been worth it in the last few years. I think he is still a good trading chip if he permits it in his contract and would garner major interest from other teams. It could either free up the bucks for young talent or bring a major one to L.A. Lots of possibilities present themselves. Kershaw cannot put this team on his back any longer. It’s time for management to get real about the money issues and get a cohesive plan together for the future. Can they rely on luck every year to find a Muncy or do they need solid, positional players who are consistent in their production?
If they do go for Machado, what happens to Seager?
Nice bullpen work. 9 earned in 2 innings.
So far not so nice.
I’m not so sure about Kershaw. I’m not sure he’s worth that, but I think someone could give it to him.
Bluto, $35 million? You can get a lot more for a lot less. Let him opt out.
That wasn’t my point. I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear, I did not mean to imply he was worth 35mm.
I thought it was plausible that he received $35mm.
I do have a question though, how do the Dodgers “let” him opt out. I thought the option was solely his and not a mutual one.
Badger
You can say that again, it looks like they should have let Buehler make a rehab start at AAA, and had Ferguson come in for Kershaw again.
Muncy is still having very good at bats, and he is still hitting in the second part of June too, I have to give him credit, too.
We split with the Cubs. They are better than us so a tie is a good thing. I guess.
About the bullpen…..
Lost 4 of 7 to a Cub team with DL issues (just like the home team), not playing
a great brand of baseball just now.
Ds still with a ways to go….
Dud.