Cubs show fight in series win over Dodgers

LOS ANGELES — If the Cubs are to keep their slim-yet-extant hopes for the postseason alive, a number of things are going to have to work in their favor over the next few weeks.

They’ve got a couple of teams ahead of them for the third and final NL Wild Card spot; they trail the Mets by five games, while the Braves are one game back of New York. Chicago’s fate depends, in part, on both clubs falling off considerably.

But the Cubs also have to play their best baseball of the season. And though they lost a hard-fought finale against the Dodgers, 10-8, on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, taking two of three from one of MLB’s top teams was a good start.

“You’re never out of it until you’re officially out of it,” said Cody Bellinger. “Obviously, we wanted to come out on top, but it was a tough one, and we’ve got to keep fighting.”

Here are three takeaways from the series and where things stand now for the North Siders (75-71):

1) On the road again
It’s been well established that the Cubs’ bats have fared much better in away games than at Wrigley Field in 2024. During their most recent homestand, they were shut out three times in six games. They scored 17 total runs in those games (thanks largely to a 12-run rout of the Pirates on Sept. 4). They surpassed that in three games at Dodger Stadium, compiling 24 runs. They also racked up 33 hits, with Seiya Suzuki, Michael Busch, Isaac Paredes and Pete Crow-Armstrong collecting five apiece.

This season overall, the Cubs have averaged 5.11 runs per road game, compared to four runs per game at Wrigley Field. It hasn’t necessarily translated to better results, as they’re 38-33 in Chicago compared to 37-38 elsewhere (though they’ve gone 12-5 on the road since Aug. 1). But it goes without saying that the more you hit, the better your odds are to win. And with 10 of 16 remaining games coming at home, it’s something the Cubs are going to have to work out in a hurry — although it’s left them puzzled to this point.

“Baseball,” manager Craig Counsell said. “I don’t have a good explanation for you.”

2) Mistakes prove costly
The first two games of the series were a showcase of good baseball fundamentals for the Cubs, who took advantage of some mistakes by the Dodgers, particularly in a five-run eighth inning to come back and win on Tuesday. On Wednesday, however, they found themselves on the other side of things.

After Bellinger hit a three-run homer to bring the Cubs within a run in the fifth, Crow-Armstrong knocked a bases-loaded single to tie the game. Not realizing Busch was given the stop sign at third base, Crow-Armstrong continued on for second, ending up in a pickle that resulted in Busch being tagged out between third and home.

Even more deflating was a botched double-steal attempt in the ninth inning. Chicago entered the frame trailing by three, and after loading the bases on three straight walks by Michael Kopech, they added a run on Isaac Paredes’ sac fly. With Busch at the plate and one out, Suzuki and Bellinger broke for third and second, respectively. Suzuki was thrown out by catcher Will Smith.

Counsell said that he did not call for the double steal, and said the baserunning blunders were “inexcusable.”

“The pitcher, he had one rhythm, I was timing him up, and it looked like he wasn’t really paying attention too much to second base, focusing on the hitter,” said Suzuki through interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “… That was my mistake on my part. That changed the momentum of the game.”

3) The schedule from here on out is (mostly) favorable
The Cubs have five series remaining this season, and four are against sub-.500 teams. They play three this weekend at Coors Field against the Rockies (54-92), then come home for three against the A’s (64-82) and four against the Nationals (65-80). They then head to Philadelphia for three games against the MLB-best Phillies (88-58), before returning to Wrigley to close out the season with three vs. the Reds (71-76).

It doesn’t matter how good the matchups look, of course, if the Cubs don’t go out and execute. And they are well aware of that fact.

“We know that we’ve got to pile up some wins,” Kyle Hendricks said on Monday. “It’s one day at a time, though. You can’t win three games or four games in one day. So you come in every single day, and we know what our focus is. We know it’s a short stretch here. So, yeah, just giving it everything we’ve got. We know if we play [up to] our potential … anything can happen.”