Cubs 10, Dodgers 4: Walker Buehler’s struggles continue, offense can’t take advantage of chances

Two struggling starters took the mound tonight, and somehow it was Kyle Hendricks that outpitched Walker Buehler. Old friends on the Cubs drove in a bunch of runs and the Dodgers couldn’t take advantage of their chances in a 10-4 loss.

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The important thing to remember here is that Buehler seems to have the stuff of an average starter, but the finishing touches in terms of consistency just aren’t there yet. Too many mistakes resulting in a lot of runs.

Limited the walks but too many hittable pitches in the zone: 5 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 4 K, 86 Pitches.

Anthony Banda gave up a couple runs in relief of Buehler in the 6th, while Michael Grove got a scoreless 7th frame. Nick Ramirez then got the final two innings for the pen, giving up three runs (one earned) to make it 10.

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Meanwhile, Hendricks didn’t pitch great but he avoided a huge inning, as they stranded the bases loaded against him in the 3rd, and three singles and a walk against him in the 5th only resulted in two runs after the pen entered and limited the damage.

They then didn’t get anything after having first and second with nobody out in the 6th, but did it the easy way with a Shohei Ohtani single and Mookie Betts‘ 17th homer in the 7th.

After that, a walk and single were stranded to end the 7th and a leadoff walk led to nothing in the 8th, while they just went quietly in the 9th.

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This happened as well:

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NL WESTRECORD
Dodgers86-58
Padres81-64 (5.5 GB)
Diamondbacks80-64 (6 GB)

The series continues tomorrow on TBS at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET, and it’ll get a lot of hype due to the pitching matchup. It’ll be Yoshinobu Yamamoto making his return off the IL (for probably an abbreviated start) against countryman Shota Imanaga.

About Chad Moriyama

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"A highly rational Internet troll." - Los Angeles Times