In a break from their torrid home-run hitting pace, the Los Angeles Dodgers manufactured a run to take a lead on the Chicago Cubs. They did so again in the bottom of the fifth inning to break a tie.
But it was all for naught as Javier Baez slugged two home runs, including a grand slam in the sixth inning, to power the Cubs to a 9-4 victory. Los Angeles fell to 0-4 in June games they didn’t hit a home run in, compared to a 16-4 mark this month when going deep.
Beyond that, however, the loss easily could be attributed to a pair of Yasiel Puig miscues. He ran into an inning-ending double play in the second, and was charged for an error in the sixth when Ian Happ’s line drive skipped off Puig’s glove.
Puig appeared to have a beat on the ball until the final moment, and the result was runners on second and third base with one out. A pair of RBI singles led up to Baez’s grand slam.
Following the game, Puig explained what transpired on the play and said it was the reason the Dodgers lost, via Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times:
“I thought the ball was farther away,” Puig said. “And when I was trying to run it down, I lost it in the lights. And that’s why we lost the game.”
As for not making an attempt to advance to second base while Cody Bellinger was in a pickle, Puig said he was unaware of the situation:
“I didn’t notice that Bellinger was in a rundown,” Puig said. “When I decided to go to second, that’s when they got me out.”
The Cubs had their infield drawn in, which made for an easy play with Bellinger going on contact. The chopper to third base gave Baez plenty of time to throw to the plate, and Contreras eventually returned the ball to Baez for the tag before he fired over to first base to backpick Puig.
The blunder was reminiscent of Puig’s mistakes early in his career, which he’s cleaned up over recent seasons.
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