Dodgers left-hander Justin Wrobleski navigated early command issues, issuing three walks in the first two innings before finding his rhythm to get through six frames without allowing a run. He limited the Cubs (17-11) to four hits.
The Dodgers’ bats came alive again in the sixth. Pages led with a double and Kyle Tucker drew a walk, setting up Dalton Rushing’s RBI single through the right side of the field. Tucker later scored on an errant back-pick attempt by Cubs catcher Carson Kelly.
Kyle Tucker scores for the Dodgers in the fifth inning against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
The next inning, designated hitter Shohei Ohtani homered for the first time in two weeks, suggesting the end of his short-lived slump.
Dodgers relievers Edgardo Henriquez, Jack Dreyer and Kyle Hurt completed the shutout.
Will Smith sidelined
Dodgers catcher Will Smith was out of the lineup for the second straight game because of lingering back tightness, according to manager Dave Roberts.
“It’s one of those where he could play if needed,” Roberts said. “But we just thought it was smart to give him an extra day.”
Roberts said the Dodgers were not considering putting Smith on the injured list and hoped he would return to the lineup Monday against the Miami Marlins. It helped that backup catcher Rushing entered Sunday batting .400 with seven home runs in just 11 games.
“You weigh out the positives and negatives,” Roberts said. “But Dalton going the way he’s going, it just only seems like downside to push [Smith] now.”
The decisive blow in the Dodgers’ 12-4 win against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday at Dodger Stadium was the kind of unrelenting rally they hadn’t mustered since leaving Colorado on Monday.
The Dodgers were trailing by a run going into the bottom of the fourth inning. Then they put together a six-run rally.
They stacked up six hits, only one of which was for extra bases, and two walks in the inning, to knock Cubs starter Colin Rea out of the game before piling on against long reliever Javier Assad.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged Friday that the offense hadn’t been clicking as a whole for much of the week. That changed Saturday, with contributions from across the lineup.
Shohei Ohtani ended a three-game hitless streak (0 for 12) with a single in the first inning. He went on to draw two walks to reach base three times.
Max Muncy — batting third because he was feeling under the weather and Roberts wanted to take advantage of the matchup with Rea before replacing Muncy with Santiago Espinal — drove in the Dodgers’ first runs. Muncy’s two-run blast in the third inning was his ninth home run of the season.
Dodgers No. 8 hitter Hyeseong Kim started the fourth-inning rally with a line-drive single up the middle. Then Alex Freeland, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernández, Dalton Rushing and Andy Pages combined for six RBIs.
Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki delivers against the Cubs in the first inning Saturday at Dodger Stadium.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
They kept applying pressure against the Cubs’ injury-depleted bullpen, putting together a four-run sixth inning that added two more RBIs to Pages’ tally.
The Dodgers (18-9) forced the Cubs (17-10) to use two multi-inning relievers, which could affect the rubber match Sunday.
Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki gave up three home runs, but they were all solo shots since he limited traffic on the bases. Sasaki surrendered four runs, each in different innings, and left the game in the sixth after putting two runners on base with a walk and single.
Left-hander Jack Dreyer entered and immediately walked designated hitter Moisés Ballesteros to load the bases. But he struck out the next two batters, and right-hander Will Klein finished the escape job.
The bullpen, with Kyle Hurt and Jake Eder also contributing, held back the Cubs the rest of the way. The Dodgers’ victory stopped the red-hot Cubs’ 10-game win streak.
When Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong’s scathing remarks about Dodgers fans took off this spring, he wasn’t worried about how fans might interpret them. His back-and-forth with the Dodgers fans dates back several years.
“I wanted to make sure that the people on the other side of the field who I really respect knew where I was coming from, and that it had nothing to do with the people on the field,” Crow-Armstrong told The Times before the Dodgers’ 6-4 loss to the Cubs on Friday, full of gratitude for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, shortstop Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in particular. “I wanted to make sure that nobody took it in that way, that I was going at the Dodgers.
“Was I poking fun at Dodgers fans? Absolutely.”
It all started in late February, with a Chicago Magazine article on Armstrong, which quoted him: ‘‘I love Chicago more and more. It’s just an incredible city. The people are great. … They aren’t just baseball fans who go to the game like Dodgers fans to take pictures and whatever. They are paying attention. They care.’’
After the story came out, Crow-Armstrong went on “Foul Territory” and doubled down.
When the Cubs came to town Friday, Dodgers fans made it clear they hadn’t forgotten. Thunderous boos greeted Crow-Armstrong as he walked up to the plate for the first time. But Crow-Armstrong was expecting that, and he didn’t walk back anything he said.
“What I wish people could see through is, I’m not getting at die-hard Dodger fans,” he said. “They obviously exist, they’re out there. I grew up seeing those people, too, but it’s a see-me city, man. It’s a Lakers city where people show up to sit courtside and look good. And I view it the same way here.
“Thank you, Shohei [Ohtani] and Freddie and Mookie because it wasn’t always like this.”
On that last point, his tone was sincere.
Friday’s announced attendance at Dodger Stadium was 53,733, the seventh sellout of the season.
Dodger Stadium played an important role in Crow-Armstrong’s baseball upbringing. The son of two actors, Ashley Crow and Matthew John Armstrong, Crow-Armstrong grew up in Los Angeles and went to Harvard-Westlake.
He went to plenty of Dodgers games, but when Crow-Armstrong was younger, he latched on to players rather than teams. From the Dodgers, he was drawn to Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and of course, Clayton Kershaw.
“I remember specific stuff too, like Adrian Gonzalez’ first homer as a Dodger,” Crow-Armstrong said. “We were all watching that together. The Dodgers were a huge part of my life growing up.”
Pete Crow-Armstrong celebrates in the dugout after scoring off a triple hit by Dansby Swanson during the seventh inning Friday.
(Ryan Sun / Associated Press)
Crow-Armstrong, baseball-hungry from a young age, also would go to Angel Stadium when the Yankees were in town to watch Derek Jeter, one of his favorites, go up against Mike Trout’s Angels. Eventually, his father, an Illinois native, recruited his son into Cubs fandom.
Crow-Armstrong’s L.A. ties made that first trip with the Cubs to Dodgers Stadium feel “special.” Regardless of the size of the stadium, or the major-league stage, part of that first experience in September 2024 made him feel like he was back in high school.
“I’m playing in front of my friends again, and I’m getting a show off for my friends and all that fun stuff,” he said. “There’s nothing better to me than seeing a random face that I didn’t know was coming to the game, and they’re sitting three rows behind our dugout. … That’s by far what I look forward to most about this trip.”
Show off he did.
Crow-Armstrong’s standout defensive showing peaked in a game-sealing catch over the wall in right-center field, robbing Max Muncy of a home run.
The rookie center fielder didn’t bother to hide his delight, jumping and shouting in celebration. He developed a contentious relationship with Dodgers fans in that series.
“They were really quick to talk … to me when I was in center field,” Crow-Armstrong said. “And I appreciate that kind of stuff. Like they’re obviously engaged and in the way that they want to be. … And just very easy to kind of give it right back. Like, ‘Yeah, please, be my guest.’ But I kind of love that.”
The Cubs’ next visit to Dodger Stadium was just as eventful. News broke that the Cubs and Crow-Armstrong’s agents at CAA had engaged in extension talks. Then he broke out of a slump to hit two home runs and a triple in a win that clinched a series victory.
“I love playing here,” Crow-Armstrong said afterward. “It’s a fun crowd, and I like the noise. I think the Cubbies like playing here, too.”
He grinned, in case the jab was too subtle.
Crow-Armstrong had a similar look on his face when that history came up again Friday.
“If we’re going to be immature and childish about it,” he said, “I’d say they started it, they just gave me an opportunity to kind of run with it.”
Crow-Armstrong walked into Dodger Stadium expecting it to be a topic he’d have to address all weekend, fully prepared to keep running with it.
“Each fan base has their own personality,” he said. “And I was really just comparing my own two experiences: playing for the Cubs, and people showing up and enjoying it, and there’s just an air about the place; and then here, it is what it is like. Maybe if I played here, it’d be different. But I don’t.”
His experience with Cubs fans also factored into his desire to stay with the organization long term. This spring, he signed a six-year, $115-million contract. And on Friday, he commended Cubs fans for their patience.
“It wasn’t the hottest start to my career, but I got loved the same way that I do today,” Crow-Armstrong said. “And even right now, when it’s been tough on me results-wise, all I hear running out to the field is, ‘Hey, we love you. We got you. The city loves you. You’re the best.”
The sentiment from Dodgers fans Friday was a little different. Not only did they boo Crow-Armstrong every at-bat, but even the Dodgers’ social media team piled on.
After Crow-Armstrong struck out in his first at-bat — one of Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan’s career-high-tying 10 strikeouts — the Dodgers’ social media account posted a video of his last whiff, with the caption: “A strikeout worthy of taking pictures and whatever.”
Crow-Armstrong and the Cubs, however, got the last laugh, as the Dodgers’ bullpen buckled. With the game tied in the ninth Friday, Crow-Armstrong lined a single into shallow left field against Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott. Then Scott grooved a fastball down the middle to Dansby Swanson, who hit it over the left-field wall.
Crow-Armstrong had a trip around the bases to relish the relative quiet he and his teammates had induced.
