Dodgers nearly on wrong end of Drew Smyly perfect game in rout by Cubs

CHICAGO – It was a nearly perfect afternoon of baseball at Wrigley Field.

Left-hander Drew Smyly flirted with a perfect game, retiring the first 21 Dodgers in order while his teammates hogged all the hits, pounding the Dodgers 13-0 on Friday afternoon.

What would have been the 24th perfect game in baseball history and the first since Felix Hernandez’s in 2012 ended in a most imperfect way.

David Peralta led off the eighth inning with a broken-bat dribbler onto the grass down the third-base line. Cubs catcher Yan Gomes tumbled over Smyly as he tried to field the ball. There was no play at first although Peralta would have beaten any throw Smyly could muster. It went as an infield single and Smyly’s day ended after he retired two more Dodgers batters. He left the mound to a standing ovation, tipping his cap to the crowd as he reached the dugout.

A pair of ninth-inning walks against Cubs reliever Jeremiah Estrada were the Dodgers’ only other baserunners.

Smyly entered the game with a 4.70 ERA but he held the Dodgers to one run in 5⅔ innings in a win at Dodger Stadium last weekend. He was barely challenged by their lineup Thursday.

The 33-year old Smyly used just two pitches – a knuckle curve and a cut fastball that averaged 91 mph – but he struck out 10, including six in a row at one point. Peralta’s perfection-breaker left his broken bat at 32.9 mph, appropriate to the procession of weak contact the Dodgers managed all afternoon.

Mookie Betts’ fourth-inning fly out to center field was the Dodgers’ hardest-hit ball on the afternoon off Smyly with an exit velocity of 98.1 mph. No other Dodger broke 90 mph against him.

Of the two left-handed starters in Friday’s game, Smyly would not have been the bettor’s choice to flirt with perfection. But Julio Urias’ history at Wrigley Field doesn’t make for good odds.

Urias gave up five runs in just 3⅓ innings Friday, including back-to-back home runs by Cody Bellinger, with his third consecutive game with a homer against his former team, and Trey Mancini. In three regular-season appearances at Wrigley Field (two starts), Urias has given up 11 runs in just 10⅓ innings.

But Urias was still the Dodgers’ most effective pitcher of the afternoon – until infielder Luke Williams retired the side in order in the eighth inning.

Fresh off a 6 a.m. flight from Salt Lake City after being promoted from Triple-A, Jake Reed retired one of the seven batters he faced. The other six all scored in a seven-run fifth inning for the Cubs.

Andre Jackson followed Reed and gave up a three-run home run to the second batter he faced.