Jake Arrieta’s 11th start of the season and he is looking for his 10h win of the season against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Scott Kazmir, who is looking for his 5th win of the season. Jake would start the game off getting the first two batters in the first but would give up a line drive single to center field by Adrian Gonzalez. That would be all the action after Joc Pederson strikes out to end the top half. Dexter Fowler would lead off with a walk but he forced out at second on Jason Heyward’s ground ball to second base. Bryant would strike out but with Anthony Rizzo at the plate, Heyward would steal second base. Then Rizzo would reach after being hit by the pitch. Ben Zobrist would strike out to end the inning. Jake would almost have a 1-2-3 second inning but Miguel Montero’s fielding error would allow Yasmini Grandal to reach first and then Montero’s throwing error would advance him to second base. It would be Kazmir who would score the perfect inning. In the top of the third, Jake would get the first two batters out but give up a single to Corey Seager but get Gonzalez o end the inning. Fowler would get the only hit in the bottom half of the third but get picked off trying to snag second to make it a 1-2-3 inning.
Jake would get his first perfect inning in the top half of the fourth but not before Joel Maddon had to challenge the tag at first on Trace Thompson. Scott would record the same in the bottom half. Jake would lead off the fifth by walking Grandal who would be forced out on Carl Crawford’s ground ball to short stop but he would be forced out on Kazmir’s inning ending double play. Kazmir would continue to silence the Cub’s bats with his third consecutive perfect inning. Both men would only see three batters each in the sixth inning.
Jake would start the seventh inning off by getting the first two batters out but would walk the next three batters to load the bases for pitcher Scott Kazmir. Dave Roberts would not hesitate to pinch hit for him with Justin Turner who would strike out to end the inning and bring us to the stretch. The Cubs continuing the tradition of baseball would use the video board to show Vin Skully singing the seventh inning stretch, in honor of Harry Carrey, which was a pretty cool moment. Sorry, I cannot give an other word for it. They also congratulated him on 67 years in the business. Joe Blanton would enter the game in the bottom half of the seventh and continue the silencing of the Cubs bats.
The top of the eighth would bring in Clayton Richard for the Cubs who would make the game interesting by giving up three straight singles to Chase Utley, Corey Seager and Gonzalez who drives in Utley for the first run of the ballgame prompting Maddon to go to the pen and bring in Adam Warren. He would get Joc to fly out for the first out of the inning but walk Trace to load the bases. With Howie Kendrick up to bat, Warren would bring it to a full count getting him to fly out to Heyward but it would be scored as a sacrifice fly as Seager would score run number two of the the evening. Yasmani would pop out to shortstop Addison Russel to end the inning. Blanton would continue what Kazmir started with his second consecutive perfect inning. Dodgers 2-0.
Maddon would bring Warren back out for the top of the ninth and give up two singles Crawford and pinch hitting Enrique Hernandez. Man now on first and third and Maddon goes back to the pen for Trevor Cahill. He would get Utley to strike out but gives up a three run homer to Seager. Cahill would get Gonzalez to ground out and Pederson to fly out to end the inning. The Cubs only have one more shot to win this game with Tommy La Stella leading off agains Adam Liberatore. Adam gets La Stella and Fowler to fly out and Heywrd would go down swinging to end the game, 5-0 Dodgers.
Jake would go seven innings striking out 8 walking 4 and only giving up 2 hits. Richard and Warren wouldn’t be so lucky giving up four rounds on five hits but they didn’t give up a walk. Two more games to go. Let’s Go Cubs!
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