Steve Webb
Game 16, 4/12/2025: Dodgers 0, Cubs 16
CHAVEZ RAVINE — Well, that could have gone a whole lot better. Roki Sasaki navigated through some traffic on Saturday to turn in his longest start thus far, but as soon as he left the game, the Cubs went to town, scoring six runs off usually steady reliever Ben Casparius, and taking the second game of the series in a laugher by a score of 16-0. It was the biggest shutout loss by the Dodgers since 1965. So yeah, not great.
Though Sasaki had a longer outing in this one, he looked a bit better in Philadelphia last week, to be honest. He was pretty consistently behind hitters in the early going, and got bailed out by some overly aggressive Cubs hitters. Still, going five innings and giving up just one run is a solid outing by any measure. His final line for the night: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K.
While it will look good in the scorebook for Sasaki tonight, we have to acknowledge that it could have gone a WHOLE lot worse in the top of the third. Walk, single, walk loaded the bases with Northsiders with just one out. After a Seiya Suzuki lineout brought Sasaki within an out of an escape, former Dodger Michael Busch (who’d already homered) came within a hair of hitting a grand slam when he hit a Sasaki four-seamer to the center field wall, only to be robbed by a leaping Andy Pagea s. It was more evidence of Pages continued improvement in the outfield, which is most welcome after some of his “adventures” on the last road trip.
However, the saved runs turned out to be all for naught. Ben Casparius came into the game in the sixth, and the Dodgers’ chances in this one started tanking shortly thereafter. Casparius didn’t have it on Saturday. He gave up an RBI single to Dodger legend Justin Turner in the sixth (seriously dude?), but in the seventh, the floodgates opened. The Cubs were basically using Casparius for batting practice in this inning as they batted around, scoring six times in the frame. Not that you want all the ugly details, but the big blows in the inning were a home run from catcher Carson Kelly, and bunch of singles from everybody else in the lineup, it seemed. By the time the carnage was over it was 7-0 Cubbies.
It got worse from there, but to be honest, I don’t have the heart to fill you in. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t pretty for Luis Garcia either. And, by the time Miguel Rojas took the mound, the line of headlights heading out of Chavez Ravine was pretty much in full swing.
Ugh. Flush it. Come back strong on Sunday. It’s going to be a chance for Tyler Glasnow to bounce back on national TV as this is an ESPN game, which means a slighty weird 4:10 PDT start time. The Dodgers will be facing veteran righty Colin Ray, who’s only thrown a handful of innings in 2025. Sounds like this whole squad could use a reset. Let’s do this.
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