Dodgers 0 Cubs 2: Offense Stayed in NY

The Dodgers forgot to pack their offense as they had only had two baserunners and had 25 straight batters retired.

Alex Wood wasn’t at his best, but probably deserved a lot better through his five innings of work. He got himself in and out of trouble in the second and third innings, and while the Cubs got baserunners in each of Wood’s five innings, they failed to score until the fifth.

The fifth started poorly, as Ben Zobrist lined a single to right and Yasiel Puig tried to do a little too much with it, misplaying the ball and allowing Zobrist to reach third. Jason Heyward followed that up with a weakly hit infield single to score Zobrist, and Heyward later scored on an Anthony Rizzo RBI double.

Wood was fortunate to only allow two runs, but Puig’s blunder really hurt him. It’s not like it mattered much, as the Dodgers offense was completely non-existent.

Jason Hammel started for the Cubs and the Dodgers’ offense was predictably stagnant. Remember, they had a late game last night and an early-ish game today, with an overnight flight in between. I sorta expected the offense to struggle, and the Dodgers did not let me down there. In the first inning, Justin Turner hit a bloop single in between three defenders and Adrian Gonzalez walked. Hammel stranded them and tossed a perfect second, but was removed before the third with a leg cramp. Travis Wood came in and tossed four perfect innings, and Justin Grimm, Pedro Strop and Hector Rondon each tossed perfect innings. If you were keeping count, the Dodgers had two baserunners, and both of them came with two outs in the first inning.

The offense was awful, but the pitching in this game was pretty promising. Alex Wood wasn’t as great as he had been of late, but he still turned in a solid outing for a back-of-the-rotation guy. Louis Coleman tossed a perfect inning in relief of Wood, and Casey Fien threw another 1-2-3 inning. Fien was a super buy-low acquisition, but through his first two Dodger outings his velocity is up from where it was in Minnesota and he looks really good. Obviously can’t read too much into two innings of work, but so far, so good with that experiment.

Next: Dodgers First Quarter Grades

The offense doesn’t figure to have an easier time tomorrow, as Jake Arrieta gets the ball for the Cubs. Scott Kazmir goes for the Dodgers. So. Yeah. Go Braves?