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 are an arduous lineup to face for a pitcher without command of the fastball and his best offspeed pitch, which for Wicks is his changeup that he needs to generate whiffs and put hitters away. Wicks struggled 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 Wednesday night, part of a five-run frame that erased the Chicago Cubs’ two-run lead.
By the time Wicks’ night ended, the Dodgers 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 inning that tied the game. But two costly baserunning mistakes in the fifth and ninth innings added up in a 10-8 loss that prevented the Cubs (75-71) from completing the sweep.
“It’s gonna 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 first and second base respectively, when he connected for a game-tying single to right field. 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 then out following 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 ultimately 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 base 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 inning and never really 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 stuff that not generating the type of swing and miss needed — has Wicks searching for a way to get on a roll as the remaining 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 told the Tribune on Monday. “And now you’re trying to kind of 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, alright, 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 for the 25-year-old who was expected to experience his first full big-league season after making his first opening-day roster. Instead, Wicks has been limited due to a left forearm strain and right oblique strain, the latter of which cost him more than two months on the IL. If there are any positives to come from enduring those injuries and the rehab process, Wicks has learned what goes into getting through a full major-league season with the health side of it all.
And with that, Wicks plans to adjust his offseason program. He intends to incorporate yoga and Pilates, things he’s done before in season but wants to focus on from the onset 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 I think that’s gonna 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 for the lefty to finish strong. Hottovy estimates Wicks has thrown around 80 innings this year from his workload rehabbing in Arizona, Triple-A Iowa rehab outings and big-league appearances entering Wednesday’s start against the Dodgers.
“He’s going to double that next year if he’s doing what we want to do, so I think it’s important to continue to build the rest of this year,” Hottovy told the Tribune. “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 in the regular season, Wicks has potentially three more starts remaining in his injury-impacted year.
“For me, it’s not only showing that I belong, but showing that I can help us win games, that’s how I look at it because the team wants people that are going to help them win games,” Wicks said. “And for me this is the time to show them that I can do that.”
