The Dodgers’ woes in the month of August continued on Wednesday, as their losing streak reached a season-high six games in a 7-6 loss to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
Shohei Ohtani got the best of his former WBC teammate Shota Imanaga, as he turned around a center-cut fastball for another leadoff home run. It is Ohtani’s 29th leadoff home run as a Dodger, passing Davey Lopes for the second on the franchise leadoff home run list. Ohtani’s hit streak is now at nine games.
The Cubs would immediately respond against Eric Lauer, as Pete Crow-Armstrong smashed the first pitch he saw over the center field wall to tie the game.
The Dodgers added a pair of singles from Mookie Betts and Miguel Rojas in the top of the second inning, but Imanaga got out of the jam as Hunter Feduccia lined out to right field in his first Dodger at-bat since last year.
The Cubs were able to produce with men on base in the bottom of the second inning, as after a leadoff single from Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson drove him home with a double down the left field line to give Chicago a one-run lead. Lauer got Tyrone Taylor to fly out for the second out of the inning, but Crow-Armstrong had his second RBI of the game with a double of his own to extend the Cub lead to two.
The Dodgers once again put two on with a pair of singles in the top of the third, including Freddie Freeman extending his hit streak to 15 games, but Imanaga struck out Tommy Edman looking before getting Kyle Tucker to fly out to center to get out of another jam. The Dodgers would put the leadoff man on in the top of the fourth inning, but they would fail to move him over at all.
After a scoreless inning from Lauer in the bottom of the third, the Cubs gave themselves another 5-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning as Crow-Armstrong lifted his second home run of the game, giving him four RBI against the Dodger left-hander. Alex Bregman added another two-out RBI to make it a five-run lead for the Cubs.
It’s the first time that Lauer has allowed more than three runs in any game with his new club. It is also the first time he failed to log at least five innings of work since June 2, as his afternoon was done after allowing six runs over four innings while tossing 95 pitches.
Edgardo Henriquez and Kyle Hurt managed to keep Chicago scoreless over the next two innings, but the Cubs added one with an RBI double from Hoerner in the bottom of the seventh inning to make it a six-run lead, the largest they had in the series.
Mookie Betts finished Wednesday’s game going 4-5 with four singles, the first four-hit game he’s had since his two-home run barrage against the Phillies on July 20. His fourth single kickstarted a comeback attempt in the eighth inning, and Max Muncy got the Dodgers back in the game with a three-run home run against Caleb Thielbar. After a single from Miguel Rojas, Teoscar Hernández went down swinging off the bench in Feduccia’s spot. Ohtani decided to match Crow-Armstrong’s home run total on the game, as he went the other way against Ryan Zeferjahn to cut the deficit to just one run. After scoring just two runs over their last 16 innings of offense, they put up a five-spot in the eighth inning.
The Dodgers couldn’t quite cement the comeback, as Jacob Webb retired the side in order to help the Cubs complete the sweep. It is the first time the Cubs have swept the Dodgers at Wrigley Field since May 2021.
Game particulars
- Home runs— Shohei Ohtani 2 (26), Max Muncy (22); Pete Crow-Armstrong 2 (26)
- WP— Shota Imanaga (8-9): 5 IP, 8 hits, 1 earned run, 0 walks, 6 strikeouts
- LP— Eric Lauer (6-6): 4 IP, 11 hits, 6 earned runs, 0 walk, 1 strikeout
- SV— Jacob Webb (6): 1 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts
Up next
The Dodgers are off on Thursday but resume their road trip on Friday as they begin a three-game set against the Arizona Diamondbacks (6:40 p.m. PT). Roki Sasaki goes for the Dodgers, while Arizona has yet to announce their starter.
