The Los Angeles Dodgers have only played 25 total games to begin their 2025 season, but seven of them have already come against the Chicago Cubs.
Those matchups also took place in three different locations: two in Tokyo, Japan, three at Dodger Stadium and two more at Wrigley Field. The Dodgers won the first three head-to-head matchups, including both during the Tokyo Series, but the Cubs came back to win the next four to take the season series.
That has also been somewhat of a microcosm of each team this season. While the Dodgers started off hot, they have been in a cold stretch since. Whereas the Cubs started off slowly and have played great baseball as the season progressed.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts saw the differences between the Cubs in the earliest part of their schedule and the more recent stretch, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
They are,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said when asked if the Cubs look like a different team since Japan. “It’s a really good defensive team. I think that when we played them in Tokyo, Tucker really was struggling. And Pete Crow-Armstrong has really killed us. So those two guys alone, and they’re just all swinging the bats. They pitch decent.
“But yeah, they’re just a much more confident team, and they’re a good club. We knew that going into the season.”
In the first three games, the Dodgers outscored the Cubs 13-4. The Cubs then came back with a 16-0 victory before taking the next three by a combined score of 22-18. In total, the Dodgers were outscored by the Cubs 38-31 across their seven games.
In each of the final two games, the Dodgers dropped the contests by just one run both times; first losing in extra innings before failing to complete a comeback in the final game of the series at Wrigley Field. The Dodgers’ offense was effective in most of the games, but pitching let them down multiple times.
Even though the Dodgers lost the season series, they still hold a slight lead over the Cubs for the better record of the two clubs. Both have 16 wins, but the Cubs have lost one more game.
Still, the season series outcome won’t matter much unless the two clubs finish with the same record and that’s needed to determine postseason seeding.
Cubs offense gives Dodgers pitching struggles
The biggest issue for the Dodgers in the series was their lack of effective pitching, but that shouldn’t be a long-term worry for the club. The Dodgers don’t make decisions in the early part of the season that is optimized for winning every game, and instead they make sacrifices to preserve the health of players and save innings.
The Dodgers have also utilized spot starters and bullpen games that won’t be seen as often later in the season and into October.
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