Tarik who?
The hype around the Dodgers’ acquisition of Tarik Skubal had reached nearly fever pitch by the time he took the mound — to a chorus of boos — Tuesday night at Wrigley Field. In fact, Skubal was booed by the Wrigley crowd just for walking out to the bullpen before the game. And if you didn’t see this earlier, a plane flew over the ballpark Tuesday afternoon trailing a banner that read “THE DODGERS RUINED BASEBALL” — only the banner was flying upside down:
Then the Cubs held Skubal to basically a standstill until he was removed after six innings trailing 2-1. That was thanks to Javier Assad, who pretty much matched Skubal all evening, and Dansby Swanson, who homered, doubled and singled for his first three-hit game since the second game of that doubleheader in New York in June.
All of that added up to a satisfying 5-1 Cubs win in front of 40,584 who created another playoff-like atmosphere at Wrigley Field.
Let’s begin at the beginning.
Neither team scored in the first inning. Then in the second, Assad walked Max Muncy, only to have him retired on a double play. Former Cub Kyle Tucker then homered to the opposite field, giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. Tucker was lustily booed for that, as well as every other time he came to the plate.
Skubal retired the first six Cubs and then Swanson homered leading off the third to tie the game 1-1 [VIDEO].
Assad then got helped out by his defense. Michael Busch made this great stop in the third [VIDEO].
In the fourth, Tucker singled and went to third on a wild pitch and ground ball out, but Assad got another ground out to strand him.
The Cubs were retired in order in the fourth and fifth, and Assad got another double play in the sixth after Shohei Ohtani had led off the inning with a single. Freddie Freeman singled after the DP and Assad was removed to a warm ovation — a really nice outing against a good-hitting team, just four hits allowed over 5.2 innings. More on that from BCB’s JohnW53:
Javier Assad’s start was the 24th by a Cub this year of at least 5.2 innings with no more than one run. It was the 13th with one run and the seventh of those on a homer.
Shōta Imanaga has eight of the 24; Assad and Matthew Boyd, four; Ben Brown, Edward Cabrera and Colin Rea, two; and David Peterson and Jameson Taillon, one.
And here’s more on Assad’s game [VIDEO].
Ryan Rolison relieved Assad and struck out Muncy to end the sixth.
That’s when the Cubs took the lead. With one out, Seiya Suzuki walked and went to third on a double by Alex Bregman. Busch then hit into this contact play and Suzuki was out at the plate [VIDEO].
Bregman took third on the play. Nico Hoerner then bounced a ball right in front of the plate that went way up in the air and wound up as an RBI single [VIDEO].
Look at the ridiculous launch angle and distance on that hit!
Rolison retired the first two Dodgers on ground balls in the seventh and then Tyler Ferguson — who’s likely headed back to Triple-A Iowa later this week — was brought in to face Teoscar Hernandez. He got Hernandez to pop up to Busch in foul territory to end the inning.
Then the Cubs extended their lead off Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia in the seventh. Swanson led off with a double, his second hit of the game. The next two Cubs grounded out, with Swanson holding at second.
Pete Crow-Armstrong singled in Swanson [VIDEO].
PCA then stole second, his second steal of the game and 28th of the year. That was important, because it put him in scoring position for Suzuki, who singled him in with the Cubs’ fourth run [VIDEO].
New Cub Ryan Zeferjahn entered to throw the eighth. He retired the Dodgers in order on just nine pitches, and got some help from his defense. Check out Pedro Ramirez catching this foul popup, leaning over the dugout rail [VIDEO].
The Cubs had one more run to come, and it came with one out in the eighth. Nico Hoerner went deep off Dodgers closer Edwin Diaz [VIDEO].
That was Nico’s third home run in his last nine games after not hitting any since late April. In 18 games since the All-Star break Hoerner is batting .389/.405/.542 with three home runs, 15 RBI and 10 runs scored.
Jacob Webb, who had been warming up for a save opportunity, instead got a four-run lead to protect in the ninth. He retired the Dodgers 1-2-3 on 12 pitches. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].
Some game notes from John:
This was the Cubs’ fifth straight win over the Dodgers at Wrigley Field: the last of 2024, on April 24; the only two they played there last season, April 22-23; and the last two nights.
The Cubs’ last such streak of at least five games was more than half a century ago: seven in a row from June 29, 1971 through Aug. 30, 1972.
They had four-game streaks April 18-19 and May 19-20, 1998, and between June 19, 2018, and April 24, 2019.
…..
This was the Cubs’ sixth try to reach 16 games over .500, a season high. They first had 16 more wins than losses last year on June 5, at 39-23. They did it for good on Aug. 16, at 69-53, and finished 22 games above, at 92-70.
The game was also the fifth loss in a row for the Dodgers, their longest losing streak of the season.
The lesson from this game: Sure, Tarik Skubal is an outstanding pitcher and the Dodgers are a very good team. But you know what, the Cubs are a very good team too and they got an outstanding outing from Javier Assad, some timely hitting and excellent bullpen work. You can put together what looks like an undefeatable juggernaut on the proverbial paper, but teams still have to play the games on the field. And the Cubs appear to match up very well with L.A. They have a chance to sweep this series Wednesday afternoon, and that’s important not just for the win, but it would also take the season series from the Dodgers and who knows? That would give the Cubs the postseason tiebreaker and who knows? Maybe that turns out to be important come October.
Here are some postgame comments from PCA [VIDEO].
And here are Craig Counsell’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].
The Cubs go for the series sweep Wednesday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Shōta Imanaga, who’s been really good lately, will start for the Cubs and Eric Lauer goes for the Dodgers. Game time is 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and also MLB Network outside the Cubs and Dodgers market territories).
