LOS ANGELES — A depleted, banged-up pitching staff over the last two weeks kept testing the Chicago Cubs.
Riding a 10-game winning streak into Saturday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, they again needed someone to step up. Right-hander Colin Rea, so consistent since signing with the Cubs before the start of last season, didn’t have his best stuff against a Dodgers lineup whose patient approach and lack of chase out of the zone challenged the veteran.
Rea didn’t have the typical life on his fastball, forcing him to go to his other stuff earlier in the game than he originally wanted. When Rea ran into trouble in the fourth with an elevated pitch count, manager Craig Counsell turned to Javier Assad out of the bullpen. The right-hander didn’t fare any better, though. The Dodgers tagged Rea and Assad for six runs each, ultimately too much for the Cubs to dig out of this time in a 12-4 loss to snap their winning streak.
“We’ve had a lot of good pitching days to put that streak together, and we did not have a good pitching day today,” Counsell said. “But they deserve some credit for that. They made it hard on us today.”
Seiya Suzuki and Moisés Ballesteros remained locked in encouraging hot stretches.
For the fourth time in his last five games, Suzuki went deep, rocketing a solo home run off Roki Sasaki in the second inning to give the Cubs the lead. He recovered from two quick strikes by laying off a pair of splitters out of the zone, then jumped an elevated 98.5-mph fastball — the fastest pitch he has homered on in his career during the regular season — for a no-doubt, 404-foot blast to left-center field.
After the game, a grinning Suzuki shared he received a text from Shohei Ohtani, who told him Sasaki said he doesn’t like him anymore because of the home run.
“Before I step in the box, I’m thinking about the game plan, how to approach the pitcher and organizing my thoughts before I step in,” Suzuki said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “And regardless of whatever the result of that at-bat is my focus is on, did I complete that ask? And then move on to the next at-bat.”
Cubs designated hitter Moisés Ballesteros gestures as he crosses the plate after hitting a solo home run during the fourth inning against the Dodgers on Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Mark J. Terrill/AP)
Ballesteros continues to show poise beyond the 22-year-old’s experience. His elite approach was on display in two key at-bats Saturday. In the fourth inning, Ballesteros fouled off two pitches, and on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, he sent Sasaki’s 3-2 slider over the right-field wall for a go-ahead solo home run. He had been fooled a couple of times by the slider during the sequence but didn’t miss the third one Sasaki threw him.
Then, in the sixth as the Cubs tried to chip away at the Dodgers’ four-run lead like they had the night before, Ballesteros again battled. Counsell kept Ballesteros in the game despite the Dodgers bringing in a lefty, Jack Dreyer, in a key spot with runners on first and second and nobody out. Ballesteros went down 1-2 against Dreyer, fouled off three of the next four pitches and took two balls to force a nine-pitch walk that loaded the bases.
Ballesteros is hitting .397 with a .446 on-base percentage and a team-best 214 wRC+ this season.
“Both at-bats, really good at-bats,” Counsell said. “Didn’t even feel like he took a great swing and hit a home run, just kind of stayed on a ball. So he continues to impress.”
The Cubs, though, failed to take advantage. Dansby Swanson struck out, Pete Crow-Armstrong struck out — one of his four in the loss — and Miguel Amaya grounded out to Dreyer to end the threat.
The Cubs (17-10) wouldn’t get any closer as the Dodgers responded with four in the bottom of the sixth to put the game out of reach. Counsell called on right-hander Vince Velasquez, pitching in his first big-league game in nearly three years, to close out the final 2 1/3 innings.