Alex Wood extended his scoreless streak to 25.1 innings and the Los Angeles Dodgers pounced on Jake Arrieta to defeat the Chicago Cubs, 4-0, in the series opener at Dodger Stadium. Yasmani Grandal hit his 10th double during the month of May.
But it was Chase Utley who opened the scoring on the night, leading off the third inning with a home run. The homer was Utley’s second in as many games, marking the first time he’s accomplished as much since Sept. 27-28, 2016, at San Diego.
Grandal followed a Corey Seager leadoff walk in the fourth inning with a run-scoring, screaming double off the wall in left-center field to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 2-0.
Wood came out of the gate strong, striking out three of the first four batters and facing two over the minimum through two innings. He struck out Addison Russell to end the second inning, after allowing a two-out singles to Jason Heyward and Javier Baez.
A Kris Bryant walk with two outs in the third was erased on a pickoff to end the inning. The Cubs managed one baserunner in each the fourth and fifth innings, via walk and hit by pitch, though failed to capitalize.
Wood’s night came to an end at 91 pitches and five shutout innings. He allowed two hits, issued two walks and collected eight strikeouts. Pedro Baez provided two scoreless innings out of the bullpen.
That was in spite of Utley’s mental mistake that left a runner on third with one out instead of a groundball result in an inning-ending double play. Arrieta nearly worked around a Seager base hit in the sixth inning, only to surrender a two-run home run to Adrian Gonzalez on a 3-1 pitch.
The home run was Gonzalez’s first this season. It reinforced his claim that improved health upon returning from the disabled list would lend to production at the plate after a slow start to the season.
Chris Hatcher set the Cubs down in order in the eighth, aided by a Cody Bellinger sliding catch in left field to rob Jon Jay of a potential extra-base hit. Hatcher remained in the game in the ninth and finished out the Dodgers’ win by retiring Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Ian Happ.
