Seiya Suzuki, left, fist-bumps Nico Hoerner during the first inning of Sunday’s game.
Michael Reaves/Getty
Rain at Wrigley Field could wash out the finale of a big April series.
Sunday’s game was delayed in the bottom of the fourth with the Cubs leading the Dodgers 6-0. After two batters in the Cubs’ half of the inning, the grounds crew was summoned to throw bags of sand onto the infield to keep it dry, holding up the action for around six minutes. A few minutes, and one Cubs run later, the tarp was placed on the field.
Before the delay, the Cubs were off to a strong start against the most expensive team in baseball.
In the first matchup between Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Shota Imanaga, the Cubs left-hander came out on top. To begin their first-inning encounter, Ohtani got ahead 3-1 in the count but Imanaga rallied for the strikeout, getting Ohtani with a 94.4 mph fastball on the ninth pitch of the at-bat. The second meeting wasn’t quite as dramatic, with Ohtani popping out softly to Christopher Morel to end the third.
Making his second start with the Cubs, Imanaga allowed two hits in four innings before the delay. Imanaga also had plenty of support from the Cubs offense, albeit with some help from a sloppy Dodgers defense.
The Cubs went ahead 3-0 in the first on Michael Busch’s bases-clearing double. All three runs were unearned thanks to a Freddie Freeman error on Ian Happ’s sharp grounder to first.
Seiya Suzuki added to the Cubs’ lead in the second on a sacrifice fly to left that brought in Mike Tauchman. In the third, Los Angeles appeared to be out of the inning when Nico Hoerner grounded to shortstop Mookie Betts. Betts whiffed on the play for an error, allowing Hoerner to reach. Hoerner then advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Tauchman’s double.
Then with the rain getting harder in the fourth, the Cubs scored again. Miguel Rojas cleanly fielded a Morel grounder but his throw short-hopped Freeman at first as Happ reached home.