John Lackey and Brandon McCarthy were locked in dueling no-hitters through the early stages of Saturday’s game, which was disrupted when the Los Angeles Dodgers broke out and cruised to another shut out victory over the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium.
The Cubs did have a baserunner reach in the both the first and second innings, on a walk and hit by pitch. Corey Seager walked in the first inning, and Kiké Hernandez reached on an error in the second.
McCarthy lost his no-hitter on what appeared to be an Ian Happ hustle double with two outs in the fourth inning. However, Happ briefly came off the bag on his pop-up slide, and was ruled out on replay. Happ’s single nonetheless snapped McCarthy’s no-hit bid.
Hernandez did the same to Lackey in the bottom of the fourth, driving a two-out double to the right-center field gap. Hernandez’s 14th double this season tied him with Yasmani Grandal for the team lead.
After Hernandez stole third base and Cody Bellinger extended the inning with a walk, Chase Utley lined the first pitch he saw into left field for an RBI single. Lackey walked McCarthy in the fifth and it cost him as his next pitch was deposited into the left-field stands by Chris Taylor for a two-run home run.
A Bellinger walk loaded the bases with two outs, and Utley delivered a two-run single to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 5-0. Lackey was lifted after five innings in which he allowed five runs on six hits.
McCarthy was checked on by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and a trainer after covering first base on a grounder to the right side of the infield. He remained in the game and struck out the next two batters faced.
McCarthy scattered two hits over six shutout innings, issued one walk and finished with six strikeouts on 79 pitches. Roberts said postgame he removed the right-hander due to knee tendinitis.
Ross Stripling’s throwing error on what may have been an inning-ending double play in the eighth instead left runners on first and second base with one out. A fielder’s choice put runners the corners, but Stripling worked out of trouble by getting Kyle Schwarber to roll a grounder over.
Stripling hit for himself in the bottom of the eighth and remained in the game to convert the three-inning save in the Dodgers’ second straight shutout of the Cubs. Stripling’s first career save came a mere two days after Hyun-Jin Ryu did the same by throwing four scoreless innings.
Collectively, the Dodgers ran their scoreless streak to 26 innings.
