Five pitches into Monday’s Cubs/Dodgers game at Wrigley Field, the visitors from L.A. had a 3-0 lead on two singles and a homer by Tommy Edman, who has now hit 16 home runs in 74 career games against the Cubs.
Watching this, you’re like “What just happened?”
Not only did the Cubs not quit after that, they roared back. Matthew Boyd settled down and pitched well into the seventh inning, and Seiya Suzuki, Kevin Alcántara, Carson Kelly and Michael Busch all homered and the Cubs blasted the Dodgers 10-5
in the series opener in front of a lively packed house at Wrigley.
The Cubs wasted no time in getting two of those three first-inning L.A. runs back. Pete Crow-Armstrong led off with a single and Suzuki bounced one in and out of the left-field basket [VIDEO].
A note on the three-run Dodger first from BCB’s JohnW53:
The Cubs had allowed exactly two runs in each of their last four games and no more than three in each of their last seven and nine of their last 10.
After Edman’s homer, Boyd retired the next three Dodger hitters in the first in order on fly balls and also the first two in the second, those on ground balls. Shohei Ohtani then singled — and Boyd picked him off (after a review) [VIDEO].
The Cubs then took the lead in the bottom of the second. With two out, Dansby Swanson walked and Alcántara, just recalled from Triple-A Iowa, hit his first MLB home run [VIDEO].
A note on the two early homers from John:
The Cubs got home runs from two of their first nine batters. They had not hit more than one homer in any of their six previous games, since last Monday at St. Louis, and had hit exactly one in each of their five games before that, so they had hit multiple homers in just one of 12. They last hit three homers two weeks ago on Monday, at home vs. the Tigers.
Boyd continued mowing down Dodgers, 1-2-3 in the third, and the Cubs then took the lead. With one out in the bottom of the third, Alex Bregman doubled and Kelly smashed his seventh homer of the season [VIDEO].
Just to recap: The Dodgers had a 3-0 lead after five pitches. After three innings, the Cubs led 6-3. Good times.
L.A. got one run back in the fourth, helped in part by a bobble by PCA in center field. The Cubs then got helped out by some stellar defense from Pedro Ramirez, who stopped an Andy Pages smash from getting into left field [VIDEO].
Nice stretch for that ball at first by Busch, too. And then in the bottom of the inning, Busch smashed a solo homer, his 14th [VIDEO].
In the top of the sixth with one out, Kyle Tucker singled — but Suzuki threw him out trying to stretch that into a double [VIDEO].
That was a strong, accurate throw by Suzuki and a nice swipe tag by Swanson. Tucker knew he was out and immediately left the field. Incidentally, Tucker was relentlessly booed all night, when his name was announced in the lineup, when he took the field and every time he came to bat. Fun times.
After that play, the Dodgers scored their fifth (and as it turned out, final) run on a massive, 443-foot blast by Teoscar Hernández that landed on Waveland. Here’s what happened to that ball:
That tweet notes the Cubs’ three-run rally in the bottom of the sixth that made it 10-5. Swanson led off with a single, but was caught stealing. Ian Happ batted for Alcántara and walked. PCA and Suzuki also walked to load the bases. Bregman struck out for the second out, but another walk, by Kelly (after a successful ABS challenge!), scored the Cubs’ eighth run [VIDEO].
Busch then singled to right, scoring two to make it 10-5 [VIDEO].
That completed the scoring on the night. Here’s a note on yet another Cubs double-digit game, from John:
This was the 15th game of the season in which the Cubs have scored double-digit runs, tying them for the most with the Nationals. The Dodgers have had 14. The Cubs and Dodgers are undefeated. The Nationals lost once.
Boyd retired the first two Dodgers in the seventh and left to a nice round of applause, a really good recovery from those first three batters. Trent Thornton finished the seventh without incident and threw a 1-2-3 eighth. Jake Woodford, whose time with the Cubs is likely up given all the players added by trade Monday, left with a good final impression. He allowed a leadoff single in the ninth but then got T. Hernández to hit into a double play (and I use the initial there because the Dodgers had three different guys named Hernández play in this game).
Here’s the final out, a little liner caught by Swanson [VIDEO].
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].
And here are some postgame comments from Kelly [VIDEO].
One last fun home run fact from John:
This is the first game of the season in which the Cubs hit three two-run homers. They had hit two in a game three times.
They had last hit three on April 29 of last year, in a 9-0 win at Pittsburgh (Carson Kelly, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Seiya Suzuki). This was their 243rd game since then.
The Cubs have hit three in 54 games since 1910, four in three games and five in one.
Just as there was a postseason atmosphere all weekend when the Yankees were in town, Wrigley Field had the same feel Monday. Tons of Dodgers fans were at Wrigley and there were long lines at the media entrance, with lots of Japanese media following Ohtani. These two teams could meet again in October, too.
The Pirates did the Cubs a favor by defeating the Brewers Monday, so the Cubs move to within 5.5 games of the NL Central lead. The Phillies and Diamondbacks also won, so the Cubs lead both by four games for the top wild card spot.
The Cubs have a chance to win the series Tuesday evening, though of course it will not be easy with Tarik Skubal making his Dodger debut. Javier Assad will start for the Cubs. Game time is again 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network. There will also be a national broadcast on TBS (outside the Cubs and Dodgers market territories).
