On Tuesday night the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers took one step closer to claiming their first pennant since 1988 as they put the defending World Series champs in a 3-0 hole in the NLCS. After two convincing wins in Los Angeles, the Dodgers carried that momentum with them into Chicago’s Wrigley Field where they won the third game of the set in much of the same fashion.
Yu Darvish took to the mound for the visitors while the Cubs sent Kyle Hendricks, a pitcher with pretty good postseason numbers, to the rubber. The Cubs would strike first on the scoreboard with a solo homer from Kyle Schwarber that would give the Wrigley fans hope early.
However, as fast as the Cubs and their fans picked up momentum, the Dodgers, as their dynamic lineup often does, took it away even faster. Andre Ethier hit a solo homer in the top of the second and Chris Taylor followed it up with one of his own in the third. That was just the beginning of a solid night for Taylor.
Still riding the 2-1 lead into the top of the fifth, Taylor tagged Hendricks again, this time with a triple to drive in Joc Pederson who had doubled earlier in the frame. Cody Bellinger was the next batter up and while he would reach base safely, it was at the expense of a fielder’s choice when Anthony Rizzo threw Taylor out at the plate.
Carl Edwards Jr. would replace Hendricks in the top of the sixth after Hendricks had already allowed two baserunners. Edwards Jr has struggled mightily with his command in the 2017 postseason and unfortunately for he and the Cubs, it continued in game three. After walking Austin Barnes to load the bases, the Cubs right hander would later walk in a run when he issued a free pass to Yu Darvish on four straight pitches.
That is not a typo. Carl Edwards Jr. really walked Yu Darvish on four straight pitches with the base loaded. Yes, the same Yu Darvish that had already pitched five innings and yes, the same Yu Darvish that had only 20 regular season plate appearances in his entire career.
The Dodgers would add a couple of insurance runs in the eighth, but the real story late in this game was the continued dominance of the Dodger relievers. The bullpen took over after Darvish’s 6 1/3 innings of one run ball and would only allow two hits from there. In fact, those two hits came off of Ross Stripling with the other three relievers pitching nearly perfect.
The Dodgers have outscored the Cubs by a score of 15-4 so far through the first three games and they are showing no signs of slowing down. After a 3-0 sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS, the Dodgers are 6-0 in the postseason. They will look to make it 7-0 tonight at 9:00 pm eastern in hopes of securing their spot in the World Series.
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