After a day off for both teams, the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers met for the third time in this young season. And, unfortunately for the Cubs, the result was the same from the previous two meetings: A Dodgers win.
This game was relatively uneventful for the bulk of the contest. Both starting pitchers were excellent tonight and appeared locked into a heated pitcher’s duel.
Neither team threatened much five innings into the game. The only exception would be Kyle Tucker’s double, which gave the Cubs their first man in scoring position on the night.
This would be followed up by a Seiya Suzuki single that could have scored Tucker. But after Tucker was haleted at third, Suzuki was thrown out after taking an aggressive turn. The following two batters, Michael Busch and Dansby Swnason, struck out to end the inning.
One swing was the difference
The Dodgers would finally get on the board in the sixth inning. After going more than 17 innings scoreless to start his career as a Cub, Boyd would surrender his first earned runs as a Cub.
The inning began with a single from outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, which was followed up by Boyd plucking Freddie Freeman in the back. Then Tommy Edman stepped up to the plate and launched a 3-run homer to left field, giving the Dodgers their only runs of the game.
Boyd played a fantastic game, overcompensating for a radio-silent Cubs offense. But unfortunately, one mistake would be the difference in Los Angeles tonight against the defending champs.
Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto had one of the best starts of his young Major League career so far. The flame-throwing righty went six innings of no-run ball while throwing over 100 pitches. His splitter looked unhittable, and his fastball was pinpoint accurate.
A good night from the bullpen
One bright spot for the Cubs was certainly their pitching. A mere day after placing starting pitcher Justin Steele on the injured list with elbow inflammation, the Cubs pitchers were great against the mighty Dodgers. As previously stated, Boyd was good, but the bullpen deployment of Ethan Roberts and Eli Morgan kept the game within reach for the Cubs.
Roberts specifically showed promise in this one. His cutter looked like it was returning to its peak velocity, and his sweeper had great movement. Morgan had a nice bounce-back after some shaky early appearances out of the bullpen.
The Cubs were the victims of the reigning champs once again tonight. Thankfully, the Cubs will conclude their regular season battles with Los Angeles come late April. The bad news? The Cubs play the Dodgers four times in the next nine days.
The Cubs will hope to get into the win column against them tomorrow, with Ben Brown set to get the start. Brown was very erratic in his last start against San Diego, but perhaps his swing and miss stuff will give the Dodgers batters fits. For the Dodgers, it will be phenom Roki Sasaki, who has looked much better as of late.
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