James Outman and Max Muncy supplied plenty of offense to help the Los Angeles Dodgers get back to .500 with a 9-4 win over the Chicago Cubs.
The Dodgers avoided falling two games below .500, where they haven’t been since June 2018, and are in position to earn a series win at Wrigley Field with Clayton Kershaw on the mound Sunday.
A relatively complete day for the Dodgers began with loading bases in the first inning and scoring on a J.D. Martinez double play. While it was encouraging for L.A. to have early traffic, only scoring one run in that situation served as another example of their ongoing inconsistency this season.
The Cubs also loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the first, but May held them to just one run. He retired nine consecutive batters after the bases were full.
That string was snapped on a hit by pitch to lead off the fourth inning, which came back to cost May on Eric Hosmer’s two-out RBI double. Hosmer’s drive to deep center field carried just past a diving attempt from Outman, in what was about the only negative on the day for the Dodgers rookie.
The two runs were all May allowed over 5.1 innings, and he effectively mixed in a curveball to help get a season-high six strikeouts.
With the Dodgers clinging to a one-run lead, Miguel Vargas delivered a pinch-hit RBI single in the sixth inning. Muncy then hit his first of two home runs, providing the Dodgers with a 6-2 edge in the seventh inning.
After Yency Almonte allowed a two-run shot, Muncy slugged another homer in the ninth inning, and Outman followed suit for his second long ball of the game as well. That moved Muncy back into a tie with Pete Alonso for the MLB lead with 10 home runs this season, and it was Outman’s first career four-hit game.
James Outman breaks Dodgers rookie record
Outman’s seven home runs to begin the season are most all-time by a Dodgers rookie for the months of March and April.
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