Smyly loses perfect game in a painful way, but Cubs romp to 13-0 win over Dodgers
Unlike some major leaguers, Drew Smyly is not very superstitious.
So when the lefty retired the first nine Dodgers he faced during the Cubs' 13-0 victory at Wrigley Field on Friday, he thought to himself, "Haven't given up a hit yet. ... Wonder how long I can go without giving up one."
Well, the innings just kept on ticking by, with helpless hitters weakly popping, grounding or striking out.
When the seventh arrived and still not a single runner had reached base, every one of the 30,381 fans knew history was possible. The crowd roared its approval when Smyly got Chris Taylor looking on a 3-2 sinker that caught the inside corner. They then rose for the first time before a 2-2 pitch to J.D. Martinez and exploded when Martinez flew out to right field to end the inning.
Six outs to go.
Could Smyly - who had one complete game in his previous 159 starts - really become the 22nd pitcher to throw a perfect game in the modern era?
Turns out, no - and it ended in almost surreal fashion, with pinch hitter David Peralta producing a broken-bat single on a ball that went perhaps 35 feet. Smyly fielded the ball, but he was run over by Yan Gomes, who was sprinting from his catcher's position to make the play.
Smyly (2-1) recorded two more outs before manager David Ross pulled him after 103 pitches.
"That's a tough way to end it," said Smyly, whose ERA dropped to 3.13. "You know, you feel like you're really close and executed a good pitch - a good curveball - and he barely hit it. Capped it. Wasn't going to go foul.
"One of us had to make the play, and I know Yan wanted it just as bad as I did. I think we both just ran and it was in the perfect place and we kind of got there at the same time.
"Yeah, that part's disappointing, but I don't think it takes away from the game."
Fittingly, Gomes came to his locker stall wearing a Northwestern football helmet. The veteran catcher said he was preparing for all the hard-hitting questions.
"He got to it before I did," Gomes said, "and I'm not as quick as I used to be trying to jump out of the way, and I just ended up riding him and becoming a cool picture."
Smyly and Gomes were almost in disbelief and didn't say anything to each other after the play.
"I think we both looked at each other like, 'I can't believe it ended like that,'" Smyly said. "It's just a baseball play, you know? It happens."
Said Gomes: "(I) wanted to kind of dig myself a hole and hide underneath it. Hate for that play to be (the focus). He had a tremendous outing."
The last pitcher to throw a perfect game was Seattle's Felix Hernandez on Aug. 15, 2012. This was the longest perfect-game bid by a Cubs pitcher since Milt Pappas, who retired 26 straight on Sept 2, 1972.
Although Smyly said he had one of the worst pregame bullpen sessions of his career, he came out and executed beautifully from the very beginning. You really tell he was on in the second inning when he threw three straight knuckle curve balls to Max Muncy that all found the strike zone. The Dodgers' slugger meekly went down swinging.
Smyly then struck out Miguel Vargas with three straight sinkers after falling behind 3-0, and he proceeded to punch out James Outman, Trayce Thompson and Luke Williams to run his strikeout streak to six.
"That was an amazing performance," said manager David Ross, who caught Jake Arrieta's no-hitter in Cincinnati exactly six years earlier. "That was fun to watch. ...
"Made pitches. Attacked. Filled up the zone. Wind blowing out here today. Tough environment for pitchers usually and he cruised."
The Cubs (12-7) hit 4 home runs, with Cody Bellinger, Trey Mancini, Nico Hoerner and Patrick Wisdom all going deep. Hoerner (1) and Wisdom (9) both hit 3-run HRs in a 7-run fifth inning that made it 12-0.
Hoerner has reached safely in a career-best 17 straight games and is hitting .365.
Nick Madrigal hit his first triple since 2021 when he was with the White Sox. Mancini went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs.