Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The biggest thing about today’s return home for the Dodgers is Cody Bellinger coming back with the Cubs.
Yay!
And that was about it for the vibes I liked as the Dodgers once against showed their weaknesses in a 8-2 loss to the Cubs.
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Noah Syndergaard somehow missed a lot of bats today, but he also allowed a few runs and the underlying factors certainly didn’t look great.
Still, he wasn’t terrible. After allowing a single in the 1st and 2nd innings, he then allowed a Yan Gomes single in the 3rd as well. That wasn’t a problem until he also allowed a Yan Gomes steal of second because he’s as slow as molasses to the plate, and then Ian Happ cashed him in with a ground-rule double.
The Cubs continued the scoring in the 4th, capitalizing on a Bellinger double with back-to-back groundouts that plated a second run. Then it was Gomes again in the 5th with a solo shot to lead things off and make it three. After Syndergaard worked around two walks that followed in the inning, he then ended his night by striking out the side in the 6th.
Could’ve been worse: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 9 K, 92 Pitches.
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On the opposite side of things was Justin Steele, which still sounds like a porn name, and he made those three runs seem like a mountain to climb for the most part.
He gave up two solo homers in the game, one to Chris Taylor in the 3rd and one to Max Muncy in the 7th, but otherwise just allowed one other hit (a single) and a walk that was later erased by a double play. Thus, when he exited, he did so with a 3-2 lead.
Unfortunately, the bats couldn’t get anything in the 8th and 9th against the Cubs pen, not that it mattered much as that tight deficit for the Dodgers wouldn’t last long.
In relief of Syndergaard, Brusdar Graterol got the 7th and went 1-2-3 with a strikeout on just eight pitches, in what was a promising sign. However, Andre Jackson relieved him and had a nightmare dinger night, as he gave up back-to-back shots to Happ and Seiya Suzuki to start the inning, gave up a deep fly ball to Bellinger, and then allowed another homer in a Patrick Wisdom shot to extend the Cubs lead to 6-2.
While Jackson got through the 8th, things didn’t get much better for him in the 9th. He allowed a homer to Gomes to lead things off, gave up a single and stolen base, and then a Happ double to make it 8-2. It’s bad, man.
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7-7 seems like a deservedly mediocre record.
The Dodgers and Cubs do it again tomorrow at 3:10 PM HT/6:10 PM PT/9:10 PM ET with Michael Grove facing Jameson Taillon.
