Dodgers drop a dozen on Cubs in long-awaited offensive outburst

LOS ANGELES -- Despite the dark clouds that loomed overhead throughout Saturday evening, a light and brief rainfall was the extent of the waterworks over Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers brought a deluge of their own, however: the type of offensive downpour that had eluded them all week long.

The Dodgers got back into the win column with a resounding 12-4 victory over the Cubs on Saturday evening, putting an end to Chicago's MLB-best 10-game winning streak and setting up a rubber game in Sunday's series finale.

Individual slumps came to an end as the Dodgers hit their way out of a team-wide scuffle. Shohei Ohtani led off the game with a single to end an 0-for-12 stretch. Teoscar Hernández had been in an 0-for-13 rut. Andy Pages started the season as the Dodgers' hottest hitter but had gone seven games without driving in a run.

A Dodgers team capable of doing plenty of damage with the long ball got only one of those in the rout of the Cubs, Max Muncy's ninth homer of the season. Instead, they relied more on small ball, with every hitter in the starting lineup recording at least one hit and scoring at least one run.

"We all love home runs. But sort of a hallmark for our club is stress, and continuing to put pressure on the opposing pitchers," manager Dave Roberts said. "You look at the last week, we really haven’t done that. We might’ve scored three in one inning, and then nothing happens after that. But continuing to apply pressure is kind of what we typically do. And we did that tonight.”

After the Cubs built a 2-0 lead against starter Roki Sasaki in the top of the third, the Dodgers answered in the next half-inning. Ohtani led off the frame with a walk, and two batters later, Muncy came through with a game-tying blast.

The Cubs inched ahead once more in the top of the fourth, but a six-run bottom half of the inning gave the Dodgers a lead they would not relinquish. Hyeseong Kim set the table with a one-out single, and the hits just kept coming. Alex Freeland brought him home with a double. Ohtani walked and Freddie Freeman hit an RBI single, and both scored on a base hit from Hernández. Dalton Rushing and Pages each knocked in a run to cap the onslaught, in which L.A. sent 11 hitters to the plate.

"We just smelled an opportunity, and we took advantage of it," Rushing said. "I think that's what good offenses do. You just kind of pass the bat along the line. … Just a testament to showing how we just pass the bat in the lineup. It was very impressive."

By the end of the fourth inning, the Dodgers knocked out Cubs starter Colin Rea and jumped out to an 8-3 lead. They had scored only eight total runs in their previous four games, losing three of them.

"They did a good job against Colin," Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. "Just making him throw pitches. Extending at-bats. He just couldn’t finish an at-bat quickly. We got one out in the fourth and we’re at 90-some pitches. That’s a credit to them for doing that."

L.A. tacked on another four runs against relievers Javier Assad and Vince Velasquez in the sixth inning. Pages drove in another pair of runs on a double and Kim brought a run home by grounding out to first base before Pages eventually scored on a wild pitch.

This is the identity that the Dodgers pride themselves on as an offense, unlike over their prior four games, when they did not consistently grind out opposing pitchers and keep the line moving.

"I think when everybody gets going," Freeland said, "that we're just about unstoppable."

Cooling down the hottest team in baseball was an added bonus of Saturday's win, especially since both the Dodgers and Cubs have realistic aspirations of making a deep postseason run later this year. But L.A. knows that every win means something, regardless of the opponent or situation.

"We just like winning around here," Rushing said. "We don't care if we're snapping winning streaks or snapping our own losing streak. We just want to win every single baseball game, and look forward to winning a series tomorrow."