Chicago Cubs vs Los Angeles Dodgers June 14
Los Angeles-- The 2016 Chicago Cubs are starting to become a distant memory in the past. The 2019 Cubs have almost the same core as the championship, but this is nowhere near the same dominant team. The Dodgers for the second straight night erased an early deficit as they defeat the Cubs 5-3.
Rich Hill was on the mound facing his former club, while Dartmouth man Kyle Hendricks was the opposing starter.
In recent weeks, it's pretty evident that the Cubs are just not particularly a good road team. Pretty dominant at home (23-11) but as soon as they leave Wrigley Field they become the Bad News Bears.
Tonight was no different than many other games. The Cubs held an early 2-0 lead thanks to a two-run homer wall-scraping drive that grazed off a fan into the short right-field wall and Bellinger was just oh so close to robbing hit.
But this relentless Dodgers lineup was not phased by the early deficit. Max Muncy hits a double into center field and Matt Beaty crushes his major-league home run to tie the score. Immediately after L.A. ties it, Chicago takes another short-lived lead with Kris Bryant tiebreaking homer in the third, before Justin Turner tied the game once again in the bottom half of the third. Once again, Matt Beaty doubles to start the inning, and unsung hero Rich Hill hit a base knock to take a 4-3 lead.
In the fifth inning, left-hander Kyle Ryan took over for the Cubs and he immediately gives up a run after the infield could not complete the double play to take a 5-3 lead. The Dodgers (47-23), who are a major-league-best 27-7 at home, just completely stymied the Cubs lineup after the third inning and were not threatened the rest of the game. Rich Hill had another great start going seven innings, three earned runs, and seven strikeouts while his counterpart Hendricks could not get out of the 5th inning. Pedro Baez and Kenley Jansen shut down the Cubs in the 8th and 9th inning to preserve another victory at home.