LOS ANGELES — After five losses in seven games and blowing a four-run lead in the series opener, the Dodgers needed some good news, and got in on Saturday thanks to an offense producing enough to overcome any deficiencies in a 12-4 win over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday evening at Dodger Stadium.
Dave Roberts said Max Muncy was feeling under the weather, which was part of the reason he batted third on Saturday, so he could get his at-bats in before coming out later in the game. Muncy made the most
of his trips to the plate, including a two-run home run in the third inning and two walks before getting pinch-ran for in the fourth. Muncy leads the team with nine home runs, and this one was his first non-solo shot of 2026.
The Dodgers made Colin Rea throw 92 pitches to get 10 outs, and by the time the Cubs starter was chased, four runs were already in the bank. Javier Assad walked Muncy but got Kyle Tucker for the second out of the inning, before three straight singles turned it into a six-run frame, the Dodgers’ largest of the season, after scoring eight total runs over their last four games.
Roki Sasaki threw strikes on Saturday, including 20 of 23 first pitches for strikes (87 percent), up from 52.9 percent in his first four starts.
Being in and around the strike zone was a blessing and curse, as three of those strikes were hit out — Seiya Suzuki pouncing on a fastball high in the zone in the second inning, Moisés Ballesteros on a splitter right down Broadway in the fourth, and Miguel Amaya expanding the zone to hit an opposite-field shot in the fifth. All three home runs were hit with two strikes, though because Sasaki didn’t walk anyone, nobody was on base and both longballs were solo shots.
With a four-run lead, Sasaki got more rope to open the sixth, but he walked Ian Happ and allowed a single to Suzuki, ending Sasaki’s night at 99 pitches, two thirds of them for strikes. That was the only walk of the game for Sasaki, his lowest total in his 13 MLB starts.
A four-run lead even later in the game wasn’t safe on Friday night, so Dodger Stadium was understandably a little queasy when the bullpen gates opened with two on and nobody out in the sixth on Saturday, even more so when Jack Dreyer walked his first batter to load the bases.
But Dreyer recovered to strike out Dansby Swanson and Pete Crow-Armstrong, before Will Klein made a nice stab of a grounder to somehow escape the inning unscathed.
The game was never that close again, as the Dodgers scored four more runs in the sixth. Andy Pages doubled in two with the bases loaded, after Teoscar Hernández drove in two with fourth-inning single. It’s the first time the Dodgers had two bases-loaded hits in the same game since last September 14 in San Francisco against the Dodgers. Los Angeles was 4-for-20 with the bases loaded entering Saturday.
Saturday particulars
Home runs: Max Muncy (9); Seiya Suzuki (4), Moisés Ballesteros (4), Miguel Amaya (2)
WP — Roki Sasaki (1-2): 5+ IP, 7 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts
LP — Colin Rea (3-1): 3 1/3 IP, 6 hits, 6 runs, 4 walks, 4 strikeouts
Up next
A battle of southpaws commences for the series finale at Dodger Stadium on Sunday (1:10 p.m.; SportsNet LA, MLB Network), with Justin Wrobleski and Shota Imanaga facing off with a combined five runs allowed in their last seven starts.
