Ben Brown used a two-pitch mix to throw six scoreless innings, and the Chicago Cubs got 14 runs on 15 hits in the final three innings of a 16-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night.
Michael Busch had four hits, including a homer and two doubles, and three RBIs, and Carson Kelly had three hits, including two homers, and three RBIs. Ian Happ had three hits and two runs, and Miguel Amaya capped a four-run eighth with a two-run homer to pace a 21-hit Cubs attack.
It marked the Dodgers’ worst home shutout loss in franchise history.
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Brown (2-1) rebounded from last Sunday’s shaky four-inning, five-run start against San Diego with a dominant 84-pitch effort in which he threw 56 four-seam fastballs (95.6-mph average) and 28 knuckle-curves (86.9 mph). Brown struck out five and walked none.
Busch, the former Dodgers utility man, drove a 98-mph fastball from Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki (0-1) over the wall in left-center for a 1-0 lead in the second. He doubled and scored on Justin Turner’s RBI single for a 2-0 lead in sixth, hit an RBI single in the seventh and an RBI double in the ninth.
Sasaki went five innings and allowed four hits and one run. Center fielder Andy Pages robbed Busch of a grand slam with a leaping catch at the top of the wall to end the third inning.
Key moment
Kelly homered off Ben Casparius to lead off the seventh, and Amaya, Busch, Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner drove in runs in the inning, as the Cubs turned a 2-0 lead into a 7-0 cushion.
Key stat
The Cubs pushed their major league-leading run total to 112, 21 more than the second-place New York Yankees.
Up next
Right-hander Tyler Glasnow (1-0, 6.43 ERA) will start the series finale for the Dodgers on Sunday. Right-hander Colin Rea (1-0, 7.36 ERA) will pitch for the Cubs.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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