It wasn’t that Dodgers southpaw Hyun-Jin Ryu was unhittable. His stuff wasn’t particularly nasty or filthy. On the contrary, the Cubs’ ability to drive in runners was.
On a day where offense was plentiful, the Cubs fundamentals and sound defense weren’t. In the first Adrian Gonzalez doubled on a fly to left center that Lake failed to get a jump on. Yasiel Puig did his duty knocking him in with a single to put them up 1-0.
We thought we might have had a battle when, in the second, Cole Gillespie and Darwin Barney put up back-to-back two-out doubles to tie it up. Back to work in the third, L.A. would also put up back-to-back two-baggers as well. Only on the first, David DeJesus fell asleep on Mark Ellis’ would-be fly out. They would earn one there and another moments later when Travis Wood walked one home to make it 3-1 Dodgers.
Preceding the continuation of their offensive romp, we witnessed some argumentation and ejection in the fourth. Upon being called out on strikes on a ball seemingly outside, Ellis would react on the call and get tossed by home plate umpire Alan Porter. Dodgers skipper Dan Mattingly was immediately up and out of the dugout and was subsequently thrown out when there was bumping contact between he and Porter. The rest of the team appeared unphazed as they added on two more. The first came after DeJesus mishandled a soft fly from Adrian Gonzalez causing Ryu to be sent home safely.
Wood exited after 3 1/3, his shortest outing on the season. He allowed 5 runs on 7 hits and 5 walks. Michael Bowden took over the mound, even having a little trouble of his own but getting out with minimal damage, an RBI sac fly from Scott Van Slyke.The Cubs attempted to shrink the lead in the bottom when Castro and Gillespie hit a pair. However, Los Angeles would get that run back with another sacrifice fly off of Eduardo Sanchez to make it 6-2, this time from Punto to score Juan Uribe.
James Russell, Blake Parker and Pedro Strop each pitched a perfect inning of relief but it wasn’t enough as the Cubs were unable to reap the benefits of outhitting L.A. 14 to 10. Chicago left players in 8 of 9 innings today, going 3 for 14 with RISP. Although Junior Lake was among those who didn’t earn an RBI today, he did go 4 for 5.
Carlos Marmol made his first appearance at Wrigley since he left after eight seasons. He allowed a leadoff double and gave up one free base but came away unscaved.The Dodgers would continue their hot streak after the break and get their 12th straight road win, tying their franchise record.
Cubs look to regroup tomorrow against Chris Capuano (3-6, 4.54) and the Dodgers behind Jeff Samardzija (6-9, 3.75)
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