CHICAGO — It was a miserable day to try to play baseball. And the Dodgers played accordingly.
Errors by Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts led to four unearned runs and Gavin Stone lasted just three innings, sending the Dodgers into a nearly three-hour rain delay down by six runs. When play resumed, the Chicago Cubs completed the formalities of an 8-1 defeat of the Dodgers on Sunday afternoon at a sodden Wrigley Field.
A cold weekend with temperatures in the 40s reached its culmination with intermittent drizzle in the morning becoming a steady rain shortly after game time. Things reached a breaking point in the bottom of the fourth inning after Dodgers reliever Gus Varland entered the game, gave up a leadoff double to Ian Happ and hit Seiya Suzuki with a pitch.
With most of the Dodgers standing in the rain, umpires waved the grounds crew onto the field. For several minutes, they spread sand all around the infield to try to soak up developing puddles.
It was a pointless effort as a steady rain continued to fall. When play resumed, Varland got two ground balls. One was handled by Freeman for an out but the next splashed its way to Miguel Rojas (making his first start at third base since 2020). Rojas’ throw was in the dirt – actually, mud – and Freeman was unable to scoop it.
A run scored on the play and the umpiring crew finally waved the grounds crew – and the tarp – onto the field.
As he left the field, Rojas – who slipped and fell running out of the batter’s box on his third-inning at-bat – confronted the umpiring crew led by Laz Diaz, clearly voicing his displeasure over their handling of the situation.
The first four runs the Dodgers gave up were less weather-related.
Freeman’s misplay helped the Cubs load the bases with two outs in the first inning and Stone gave up a three-run double to Michael Busch. In the second inning, a walk and a single set up a sacrifice fly – the Cubs’ only earned run off Stone.
In the third, Betts couldn’t come up with a two-out ground ball to his right. A wild pitch and a double by Mike Tauchman turned that into another unearned run.
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Meanwhile, the Dodgers managed just two singles in four innings against Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga.
When play resumed after a two-hour, 51-minute rain delay, Imanaga did not return. But the Dodgers managed only two more hits in five innings – both by Shohei Ohtani – against a conga line of Cubs relievers. Ohtani tripled to the wall in center field with two outs in the sixth then drove in the Dodgers’ only run of the day with a two-out double in the eighth.
More to come on this story.
