Cubs Rock Dodgers at Wrigley and the NL Central Is a Race Again
A four-homer night off Justin Wrobleski, a Brewers stumble against Pittsburgh, and suddenly Chicago is 5½ back with two months to play.
The National League's two best teams both blinked on Monday night, and the team lurking behind them made both misses count. The Chicago Cubs hammered the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-5 at Wrigley Field while the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers dropped a 4-3 decision to Pittsburgh — trimming Chicago's deficit in the division to 5½ games, per the Torch standings.
Four homers, one statement
Chicago did its damage in bunches. Seiya Suzuki launched his 19th home run of the season, Carson Kelly added a two-run shot, and Kevin Alcántara connected for the first homer of his career. The sharpest edge belonged to Michael Busch, who went deep and added an RBI single for three RBIs against the team that traded him. All four home runs came off Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski, who was tagged for seven runs over 4⅓ innings in his first loss since May 22, according to CBS Sports. Matthew Boyd picked up the win with 6⅔ innings of four-run ball.
Los Angeles got a three-run homer from Tommy Edman and a 443-foot solo blast from Teoscar Hernández, but the night extended an ugly stretch: the Dodgers have lost six of eight, including a weekend sweep at the hands of Boston.
Why it matters
At 69-44, the Dodgers still own the NL West comfortably — but Milwaukee, at 69-43, now edges them for the best record in the National League, and Chicago's 64-49 has the Cubs sitting on top of the wild-card picture. With the schedule showing these Cubs and Dodgers meeting again at Wrigley, the next few days will tell us whether Monday was a blip or the start of a genuine three-way scramble for October seeding.
For a Brewers team that has led the Central for most of the summer, the margin for error just got thinner. Five and a half games in early August is not a crisis — but it is officially a race.