The wind was not the Cubs’ friend tonight, as both Willson Contreras and Anthony Rizzo ripped would-be two-run shots that looked and sounded like obvious dingers off the bat, only to be held up by the breeze. C’est la Wrigley.
John Lackey gave up a run in the first inning on an Andrew Toles homer (suffice to say, the wind wasn’t quite yet at its worst) and otherwise labored through the frame. And then he cruised through the next five innings, very much like he did in his opening start in St. Louis. It was actually, overall, a fantastic performance by Lackey. The bats just weren’t there.
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The Dodgers got their second run in the 9th when Hector Rondon struck out Toles with a nasty pitch down in the dirt. It squirted away from Willson Contreras just enough for him to hurry the throw to first on the run (it was not necessary to throw on the run, though), which he bounced, and Anthony Rizzo could not stop. That allowed Chase Utley to score, and he slid into Rondon at the plate, who then left the game. It was a really ugly play all around.
The Cubs lost a scoring opportunity in the 6th inning, when Kris Bryant stole second base with two outs, but his safe call was overturned on replay. The throw beat him there, and the tag was attempted at him clearly before he reached the base, but I certainly didn’t see a camera angle that showed the glove actually touching him. Unless the Dodgers’ video feeds showed a much clearer angle (possible), I have a very hard time saying that the standard to overturn the call on the field – “clear and convincing evidence” to “definitively conclude” that the call was wrong – was met. This seems to happen all the time, where you instead have replay officials simply going with the “probably this” call. That’s not the standard. It’s supposed to be a high bar to overturn the call on the field.
In the end, credit Dodgers pitching, and flip the bird to the breeze. Then move on.
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