The Los Angeles Dodgers tried to salvage a series against the Chicago Cubs after losing the first two games, but they were unsuccessful and once again took another loss despite a late comeback attempt.
The Dodgers have now been swept in consecutive series by the Cubs and Boston Red Sox to push their losing streak to six games. They have now been swept three times this season.
The Dodgers’ six-game losing streak is their longest of the season and the first since losing seven in a row from July 4-11 last year.
L.A. is now 8-10 in the second half of the season and has lost consecutive series for just the second time this season (also April 27-May 3 vs. Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals).
The Dodgers are 7-12 against the Cubs since the start of the 2024 campaign, with a 6-8 mark at Wrigley Field in that time.
Cubs 7, Dodgers 6: key takeaways
Eric Lauer takes first loss with Dodgers
The Dodgers were 9-0 in games started by Eric Lauer entering Wednesday, but the southpaw finally took his first loss with the club. Lauer also allowed more than three runs in an outing for the first time with L.A.
Pete Crow-Armstrong opened the Cubs’ scoring with a leadoff home run that tied the game 1-1, and then the Cubs went on to take the lead in the second inning.
Nico Hoerner hit a leadoff single and scored on a double from Dansby Swanson. Swanson then scored when Crow-Armstrong doubled to give Chicago a 3-1 lead.
In the fourth, Crow-Armstrong again got to Lauer with a two-run homer after a single from Tyrone Taylor. The Cubs added on again when Seiya Suzuki doubled and scored on a single from Alex Bregman.
Lauer was only able to pitch four innings while allowing six runs on 11 hits with only one strikeout.
The Dodgers’ bullpen covered the rest of the game, and Kyle Hurt allowed one run in 1.1 innings, which ended up being the difference.
Dodgers offense wakes up, but falls short
Shohei Ohtani started the scoring with a leadoff home run, the 29th of his Dodgers career, to put the club up 1-0. However, that was all they scored for most of the game.
The offense failed with multiple opportunities to score and went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position through the first seven innings while leaving eight men on base.
But in the eighth, the offense broke out for five runs.
Kyle Tucker and Mookie Betts both singled with one out, and then Max Muncy slugged a three-run homer to cut the deficit to three runs. Miguel Rojas followed with a single, and then with two outs, Ohtani slugged his second homer of the game to make it a 7-6 game.
Alex Call was hit by a pitch and moved into scoring position, but the Dodgers left him stranded as Kiké Hernández struck out. Call and Hernández entered the game for Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages while the Dodgers trailed by six runs.
The Dodgers went down quietly in the ninth.
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