Yoshinobu Yamamoto turned in a brilliant performance in his return from the 60-day injured list, and Tommy Edman and Max Muncy provided power, but the Los Angeles Dodgers were let down by their defense in a 6-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs.
The miscues began early as Freddie Freeman had a ball go off his chest in the second inning, which allowed the Cubs to take a 1-0 lead with two outs. Pete Crow-Armstrong’s chopper was hit hard and took a tricky hop late, but Freeman was not charged for an error.
The Dodgers’ defense then had a forgetful showing in a five-run eighth inning for the Cubs.
“There’s a lot of things that happened tonight that led to us not winning a baseball game,” manager Dave Roberts said. “(Andy Pages) getting picked off at first base, I think changed the momentum. Not being able to make a play, Austin threw the ball wide.
“The play for Kiké was kind of a bang-bang tweener but turned into an erorr, the ball that got by Muncy somehow, that turned into more runs. It was just very uncharacteristic and led to a lot of pitches for Evan (Phillips). It was just a different team that I didn’t really recognize in that eighth inning.
“For seven innings I thought we played fantastic baseball and had the pitching lined up. The four-pitch walk to (Ian) Happ to start the inning from Alex (Vesia) was uncharacteristic. These are things that just can’t happen.”
Trouble started on Austin Barnes’ inability to convert a swinging bunt into an out. His throw to first base was off target and represented the Dodgers’ first error of the inning.
“It was horrible. This one is on me. I’ve got to make that play,” Barnes said.
That left two on, and both runners promptly scored on Seiya Suzuki’s base hit into center field. Tommy Edman, who had hit two home runs, threw into third base, only for the ball to get by Miguel Rojas and Max Muncy. It rolled into the Dodgers’ dugout and allowed a second run to score on the play.
“It was thrown right at him (Rojas), and yeah, I thought he was going to catch it,” Muncy said after the loss. “We made a lot of mental mistakes tonight. We’ve got to eliminate that. I think that’s the biggest thing. We’ve just got to clear our heads, come back tomorrow and play a good game.”
The Dodgers committed yet another error on Kiké Hernández’s inability to field a chopper at second base. He charged the ball in attempt to come up with it and tag Cody Bellinger, but to no avail, and the Cubs scored a go-ahead run en route to adding on.
Dodgers magic number
The Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the National League West title remained 13 with 17 games left on their schedule.
Have you subscribed to the Dodger Blue YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows and giveaways, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
