CHICAGO — The big, bad Dodgers who are a cinch to win a third consecutive World Series and ruin baseball in the process are a figment of the imagination. The IRL Dodgers can’t seem to win a game these days.
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Their season-long losing streak grew to six games despite a late rally and they were swept in a second consecutive series, losing to the Chicago Cubs, 7-6, on Wednesday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
They have had just one losing streak longer since 2017 (seven games last July) and were outscored 42-22 in the back-to-back sweeps by the Boston Red Sox and Cubs.
The Dodgers’ slide has made objects in their rear-view mirror appear closer. The Arizona Diamondbacks have trimmed the Dodgers’ lead in the NL West to single digits (nine games entering Wednesday) with a three-game head-to-head series in Phoenix this week. The Diamondbacks also swept the Dodgers in the last series before the All-Star break.
Another race that once seemed settled has grown a lot tighter as well – the National League MVP award.
Shohei Ohtani has done nothing to cede his frontrunner status for a fifth MVP award – except stop pitching for the past month and who knows how much longer. He led off Wednesday’s game with a 110.2 mph laser into the right field seats for his 25th home run of the season.
But Cubs leadoff man Pete Crow-Armstrong has emerged as a viable alternative for MVP voters with Ohtani fatigue. He also homered in his first at-bat on Wednesday (a 420-foot drive to right-center field) then added an RBI double in the second inning and a two-run home run off the scoreboard in right field in the fourth inning.
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Crow-Armstrong, a former Harvard-Westlake standout, finished the day hitting .288 with a .938 OPS and 26 home runs. Ohtani’s numbers are similar – a .297 average, .953 OPS and 26 home runs.
“I haven’t followed the (MVP) race. I have followed what Pete’s doing,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said when asked about the competition. “He’s figured some things out with the bat. He’s having a heck of a year. And he has rightfully made it a lot closer than most people expected. He’s had a tremendous season.”
Crow-Armstrong’s big game Wednesday ended Eric Lauer’s unbeaten run with the Dodgers. The Dodgers won each of his first nine appearances for them during which he posted a 2.96 ERA – and likely pitched his way out of being flipped at the trade deadline. But he lasted just four innings in his first post-deadline start, giving almost as many hits (11) as outs recorded (12) and allowing six runs (four driven in by Crow-Armstrong).
The Dodgers’ offense started too late on its excavation project to dig out of that hole. A night after bemoaning the state of his game – hitless in his past 12 at-bats with just seven hits in his last 47 – Mookie Betts had four hits. Freddie Freeman extended his hitting streak to 15 games (the longest active streak in the majors) before Roberts folded his cards early, pulling Freeman in the fifth.
The Dodgers had 13 hits after Ohtani’s leadoff home run. But they didn’t score again until Max Muncy launched a three-run home run off Cubs lefty reliever Caleb Thielbar in the eighth inning. Ohtani’s second home run of the game made it a five-run inning and a one-run game.
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But the Dodgers went down in the order in the ninth.
More to come on this story.