This Was Easily The Weirdest MLB Game of The Year So Far

Heading into LA, the 9-6 Cubs and 10-4 Dodgers seemed poised to have a well-fought series, with a team that had baseball's best start matching up against one of the hottest offenses around right now. And the first game of that series certainly met the billing, with the Dodgers eking out a 3-0 win. But Game 2 would see a contest that would not only be a blowout, but one of epic proportions that would see a number of the weirdest moments in the MLB season so far. Things began pretty normally, with both pitchers working a scoreless first inning. But the weirdness would start in the top of the second, when Michael Bush led off with a homerun to the opposite field. This not only came against his former team in LA, but was his third homerun vs the Dodgers since he left, which is actually tied for the most he has vs any club. Keep in mind, he's only played 10 games against them so far. That would be all the Cubs could notch in the second, as Dansby Swanson would follow this up by flailing at a sub-500 RPM splitter. Keep in mind, the MLB average is over 1,000 on that pitch. That would take us to the top of the third, where Bush was back up, looking to do damage with the bases loaded. And he certainly took a swing that could have done so, crushing this 96 MPH fastball deep to center field, driving Andy Pajes back to the track, where he made a leaping catch into the wall, robbing Bush of a potential grand slam, and keeping things, for the moment, in reach for the Dodgers. But their offense could get absolutely zero going, aided in part by this diving catch from Kyle Tucker to end the bottom of the third. Sasaki was back out there in the fourth inning, punching out Swanson on yet another diving splitter, continuing to show off what is easily one of the nastiest pitches in the big leagues. Sasaki would end up making it through the fifth inning for the first time in his career, with his best start yet ending with the fly out and just one run allowed. This is where things would start to fall apart for the Dodgers, as Ben Kasparius would come in and quickly allow an RBI single to another former Dodger, Justin Turner. He was right back out there in the top of the seventh, giving up a lead-off dinger to Carson Kelly. After what felt like a million hits in a row later, the Cubs had scored six runs without having recorded even a single out. Yet, Dave Roberts chose to stick with the righty, who gave up another two runs before finally ending the inning. This brought our score to 7-0, but the Cubs weren't even close to done yet. Kyle Tucker would ground a two-run single in the top of the eighth before Miguel Amaya would push us into blowout territory on an opposite field home run. This is where things started getting truly bizarre, as Miguel Rojas took the mount and immediately started doing impressions of his fellow Dodgers pitchers, beginning with Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Sure, the velocities were sitting in the 40 mph range, but it at least gave fans and the broadcast something to watch and be engaged with as this historic loss slogged on. The next pitcher he would imitate would be Landon Knack, and interestingly, he would ride this en route to a scoreless inning, ending the frame on a ground ball to shortstop Mookie Betts. This, of course, only came after giving up the first career hit to Gage Workman, certainly giving him an interesting story to tell for the rest of his life. But there was still more weirdness yet to come, as, leading off the next frame, after whipping out a pretty impressive Kershaw impression on this 52 mph nothing ball, he would float this 38 up there, seeing it run into the bat path of Pete Crow Armstrong en route to giving up a lead-off double. Even if it did result in a replay that was pretty awesome in my estimation. He would pull out his final impression of the night shortly after, capturing the essence of that day's starting pitcher, Roki Sasaki, pretty well, if you ask me, locating two pitches that probably should have been strikes but were so slow it was admittedly hard for the umpire to tell. The hitter, Carson Kelly, would then raid on Rojas' parade a bit by crushing his second home run of the night. Two RBI doubles later off the bats of Bush and Workman, and the score was now an outrageous 16-0. Pete Crow Armstrong batting for the second time that inning would end things with a flyout to right field, and then, after Nate Pearson secured the win in the bottom of that inning, it was official. The worst shutout loss in Dodgers history. Between this, Bush having yet another revenge game, a player tallying his first major league hit off a position player, and Rojas imitating half his squad staff, and you have a game that was anything but typical, easily being, in my mind, one of the weirdest contests of the season so far. Now, I want to know what you guys think. Do you like game recaps like this, or would you prefer I stick to more singular plays or moments? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Now, thank you so much for watching, I hope you enjoyed today's video, and if you did, please consider liking and subscribing and checking out any one of these recommended videos. Have a great rest of your day everybody, and I'll see you in the next one.