LOS ANGELES — Jordan Wicks tried to come up with different cues and feel on his pitches, really anything, to get back in the zone consistently.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have an arduous lineup to face for a pitcher without command of his fastball or his best off-speed pitch, which for Wicks is a changeup he needs to generate whiffs and put hitters away. Wicks struggled Wednesday night to find a combination that worked, and mistakes in the zone were often punished.
The Dodgers slugged four home runs off Wicks in the first inning, part of a five-run frame that erased the Chicago Cubs’ two-run lead. By the time Wicks’ night ended, the Dodgers had tagged him for seven runs and eight hits in three innings, aided by four walks.
A three-run homer by Cody Bellinger was part of a four-run fifth for the Cubs that tied the game. But two costly baserunning mistakes in the fifth and ninth added up in a 10-8 loss that prevented the Cubs (75-71) from completing the sweep.
“It’s going to be a tough night if he doesn’t have either of those pitches working,” manager Craig Counsell said of Wicks, “and you’ve got to have something working.”
The Cubs’ resiliency was again on display with an offense that overcame Wicks’ ineffectiveness until baserunning mistakes thwarted their momentum.
With the bases loaded and one out in the fifth, Pete Crow-Armstrong wasn’t paying attention to Michael Busch and Nico Hoerner, who were on second and first when he connected for a game-tying single to right. The runners held up after advancing to the next base, with third base coach Willie Harris not wanting to test Mookie Betts’ arm.
Crow-Armstrong, however, kept his head down and was halfway to second when he realized Hoerner occupied the base. He got into a rundown and was about to be tagged out when Busch took off for home and was tagged out after his own rundown.
So instead of having runners on second and third, the Cubs were left with Hoerner at second and Crow-Armstrong at first, where they were stranded when Christian Bethancourt struck out to end the inning.
As a nightmarish encore, the Cubs took advantage of Dodgers right-hander Michael Kopech’s wildness in the ninth. He walked the first three batters, and the Cubs cut the deficit to two on Isaac Paredes’ sacrifice fly.
Inexplicably, Seiya Suzuki took off for third on a 1-1 pitch with the lefty Busch at the plate and was thrown out. Two pitches later, Busch struck out to end the game.
The decision to attempt to steal third in that spot was made by Suzuki, who said he had timed up Kopech’s rhythm with his delivery and thought the reliever hadn’t been paying attention to him.
“That was my mistake — that changed the momentum of the game,” Suzuki said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry.
The pair of miscues added to a frustrating night.
“The two mistakes on the bases, which are inexcusable frankly, just is enough to not get past a team like that,” Counsell said. “You give them two outs and who knows what happens if we don’t make those outs, but those are outs we can prevent.”
Wicks needed 32 pitches to get out of the first and never got locked in as he tried to navigate his start with the Dodgers often looking comfortable versus the lefty.
“Some of the things that were really good in the bullpen weren’t in the game, and so trying to get that feel back from what we had in the bullpen and translate it to the game,” Wicks said. “And it just didn’t seem to do that.”
The rough outing was part of an up-and-down three-start stretch in Wicks’ return from the 60-day injured list. The consistency from start to start — whether it’s command or not generating swings and misses — has Wicks searching for a way to get on a roll as the season dwindles.
“It’s a little bit of trying to figure everything out at once, which is not the easiest thing in the world because everybody’s in more than midseason form,” Wicks said Monday. “And now you’re trying to get back into it, so it’s a little bit difficult but better than the alternative, that’s for sure.
“You can’t dwell on it for too long because it didn’t do you any good. Once the injury happened, it was upsetting for a day or so, and then it was like, all right, now we’re doing what we’ve got to do to get back.”
The season hasn’t played out how Wicks and the Cubs envisioned. The 25-year-old was expected to experience his first full big-league season after making his first opening-day roster.
Instead, Wicks has been limited by a left forearm strain and right oblique strain, the latter of which cost him more than two months on the IL. If any positives are to come from enduring those injuries and the rehab process, Wicks has learned what goes into getting through a full season.
And with that, he plans to adjust his offseason program, incorporating yoga and Pilates — things he has done before in season but wants to focus on from the beginning of his training for the 2025 season.
“I’ll have not only strength stuff and offseason stuff, but also taking care of the body year-round,” Wicks said. “So that’s going to be one of the biggest things I’ll have this offseason as opposed to last.”
Pitching coach Tommy Hottovy described the final three weeks of the season as enormous for Wicks, between the innings the Cubs need from him and his goal to finish strong. Hottovy estimated Wicks had thrown about 80 innings this year — including his rehab work in Arizona, rehab outings for Triple-A Iowa and big-league appearances — entering Wednesday’s start.
“He’s going to double that next year if he’s doing what we want to do, so it’s important to continue to build the rest of this year,” Hottovy said. “But also for him to continue to prove and show us and show the organization, everybody, that he wants one of these rotation spots next year.
“We should have a lot of young guys that are hungry to have that, and this is a good opportunity for him to continue to show what he can do.”
Wicks knows he needs to finish strong. With 16 games left, he has potentially three more starts in his injury-hampered season.
“It’s not only showing that I belong but showing that I can help us win games,” Wicks said. “That’s how I look at it because the team wants people that are going to help them win games. And this is the time to show them that I can do that.”
