The Los Angeles Dodgers squandered multiple opportunities throughout their Father’s Day matchup with the Chicago Cubs but Russell Martin delivered in the eighth inning of a 3-2 win, clinching the season series.
Jose Quintana picked up two quick outs in the first inning before suddenly losing command of the strike zone. The Dodgers’ rally started on David Freese’s single, which was followed with walks by Cody Bellinger and Chris Taylor to load the bases.
Max Muncy kept the line moving by drawing his own walk. Quintana did manage to fight his way off the ropes by striking out Martin on the seventh pitch of his at-bat.
Quintana settled in from there, and the Dodgers’ inability to add to their lead kept stress on Hyun-Jin Ryu throughout his start. He stranded back-to-back two-out singles in the first inning, and induced a double play after Javier Baez’s one-out base hit in the third.
Albert Almora Jr. hit a leadoff single in the fifth inning, only to be stranded. The Cubs finally broke through in the sixth, doing so in a rather unconventional manner. An error allowed the leadoff man to reach and Kris Bryant’s broken-bat bloop single put runners at the corners.
The hits had respective exit velocities of 58 and 68 mph. Then with the Dodgers shifted for Willson Contreras to pull the ball, he poked a cue-shot RBI single into the vacated area at second base for a game-tying RBI infield single.
David Bote’s slicing fly ball into right field resulted in a second out but with Cody Bellinger’s momentum carrying him into foul territory, it allowed Bryant to tag and score a go-ahead run.
Both runs scored were unearned, and Ryu wound up lowering his ERA to 1.26 by getting through seven innings.
Just as quickly as the Cubs took the lead, the Dodgers had an answer in the bottom half of the sixth. Bellinger’s leadoff home run tied the game, and a Taylor double and Muncy single marked the end of the road for Quintana.
Muncy advancing to second base on the throw home gave the Dodgers two runners in scoring position with nobody out. However, it also trigged a series of decisions from managers Dave Roberts and Joe Maddon that went in favor of the Cubs.
After Brandon Kintzler struck out Martin, Alex Verdugo pinch-hit for Kyle Garlick. That drew an intentional walk, forcing Ryu to bat and resulting in a strikeout. Joc Pederson then was sent up to hit for Kiké Hernandez, prompting Maddon to counter with Tim Collins.
The southpaw needed all of one pitch to end the threat, keeping the game tied. Pederson fell to 4-for-25 against left-handed pitching this season.
Martin erased a day of uninspiring at-bats by getting enough of a swing for a breaking ball away, lofting a base hit into left field that allowed Taylor to score what proved to be the game-winning run on an aggressive send by Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel.
Pitching a third consecutive day and looking to bounce back from allowing a go-ahead home run to Anthony Rizzo the night before, Kenley Jansen allowed a leadoff single and issued a walk before converting his save.
