After blowing a ninth-inning lead in Saturday night’s game, the Los Angeles Dodgers rebounded to defeat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2, on Sunday to take three of the four games in the series at Dodger Stadium.
As was the case on Saturday, runs were at a premium. Hyun-Jin Ryu tossed another gem, allowing just two unearned runs in seven innings of work while striking out eight. He lowered his season ERA to 1.26, which remains the best in all of baseball.
Unfortunately, the two unearned runs that Ryu allowed in the sixth inning gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead. Cody Bellinger changed that rather quickly though as he led off the bottom of sixth with a home run off Cubs starter Jose Quintana.
The home run was Bellinger’s 23rd of the season and third off of a Cubs left-handed pitcher in only a handful of at-bats during the weekend series.
That 2-2 tie remained until the bottom of the eighth inning when the Dodgers were able to break through to bring home the winning run. Chris Taylor walked to lead off the inning and advanced to second on a groundout.
Russell Martin stepped to the plate in the midst of a rough game, having struck out in all three of his at-bats. He stayed calm though and was able to loft a single into left field to score Taylor, who hustled home on a terrific send by Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel.
Kenley Jansen blew Saturday night’s game when he gave up a two-run home run to Anthony Rizzo, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called on him again for the third straight game. As it turned out, Jansen had already petitioned that he pitch again.
Jansen allowed the first two runners to reach base but then got three straight outs, including fielding a chopper to his left that he threw a runner out at home. The final out came via an exhilarating diving catch by Alex Verdugo to clinch a season series win for the Dodgers.
