Cubs takeaways: What we learned in instant-classic win vs. Dodgers
CHICAGO — What a wild, wild night at the ‘ol ballpark.
The Cubs were down to their final out in the ninth inning Tuesday, and instead walked away with a thrilling 11-10 win in 10 innings over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs (15-10) have won three of their first four games on this homestand and will go for a two-game sweep of the Dodgers (16-8) on Wednesday night.
A series finale win also would give the Cubs the season-long tiebreaker over the Dodgers, which could factor into playoff seeding at the end of the season.
Here are three takeaways from the wild win:
Down, not out
The Cubs’ three-run first-inning deficit would have felt almost insurmountable a year ago. Their three-run deficit after the Dodgers rallied in the top of the seventh would have felt like game over.
These aren’t the 2024 Cubs.
No, they make it feel like they’re never really out of a game.
Even with two outs in the ninth and down by one run, the Cubs showed fight, and Miguel Amaya delivered a 388-foot home run to send the game into extras.
Amaya’s shot only would have been a homer in one MLB park … Wrigley Field.
Porter Hodge shut down the Dodgers in the top of the 10th, stranding a runner at third base, and Ian Happ needed only one pitch in the bottom half to walk off LA.
The Cubs’ lineup showed how much different it is than the 2024 version. They can score in a multitude of ways and score and score and score …
That bodes well for this team. The bullpen has question marks. The defense was a bit shoddy. Their co-ace, Justin Steele, is out for the season. But through 25 games, the offense piling on runs will mask all of that — and the Cubs gladly will take that for now.
Problematic seventh
Some bad luck and some bad defense in the top of the seventh almost led to a devastating loss.
Wait … bad luck? OK, that’s maybe around 5 percent of what went wrong in that frame, but still noteworthy nonetheless. Let’s dive in.
The Cubs led 7-5 when Andy Pages began the inning with a 78.2-mph single up the middle — a ball with a .280 expected batting average. If it was hit a few inches to the left, it’s maybe corralled by shortstop Dansby Swanson for an out. Brad Keller then walked Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts — the latter seeing two pitches in the strike zone that were called balls three and four, respectively, instead of strikes two and three. The bases were loaded.
Then rookie third baseman Gage Workman — the Rule 5 draft pick who has been lauded for his defense — made his second error of the game, this time on a Teoscar Hernandez ground ball, to allow a run to score.
If you’re keeping score at home, that’s two outs — and potentially three if the Cubs turn the double play — that weren’t recorded.
Freddie Freeman followed with a two-run double, Tommy Edman hit a sacrifice fly, and Will Smith had an RBI double to turn a two-run deficit into a three-run Dodgers lead.
Sure, you can point to the Cubs’ bullpen and say they should have escaped the jam before allowing five runs and mitigated the damage. But it’s hard to ask any reliever — whether they’re on the best bullpen in baseball or the worst — to record five or six outs in an inning.
That rings true for the Cubs’ starter, too. Workman’s first error — against Ohtani to lead off the game — extended the inning, too. When Shota Imanaga struck out Freeman, it was the second out instead of the final out. Edman hit a three-run homer one batter later.
That just can’t happen when a team is supposed to be predicated on run prevention. The Cubs can’t give an opposing team — especially one as potent as the Dodgers — more than 27 outs in game. The consequences were costly, as was proven Tuesday.
Again, the Cubs’ offense masked all that, but they need their defense night in and night out, Fans will endure less stress if that’s the case.
Raucous environment
The crowd of 36,425 wasn’t the biggest this season at The Friendly Confines, but it sure was one of the more interesting. Plenty of Dodgers fans were in that mix, and they made their presence known during the three-run top of the first.
The crowd stayed throughout the game and just absolutely erupted during Amaya’s tying blast. There were loud moments throughout the night, but none bigger than during that homer and then while “Go Cubs Go” blared over the speakers after Happ’s walk-off single.
We know it’s not even 20 percent of the season and October is almost half a year away, but it was a fun environment. It was the type of game the Dodgers have been accustomed to, and the Cubs want to return to now.
Chants of “Freddie, Freddie” erupted during Freeman’s at-bat in the seventh, a sign of just how well LA fans traveled. The Dodgers have a fan group — Pantone 294 — that ventures to away games and had over 600 fans in the bleachers for the series opener.
It was a fun night at the park — so let’s do it all again Wednesday night, eh?