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Cubs defeat Dodgers, 3-2, in Game 4 of the NLCS

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Jake Arrieta keeps L.A. under control and Wade Davis gets a six-out save for Chicago, which wins its first game of the series. Game 5 is Thursday at 5 p.m. PT.

City Hall is feeling Dodger blue

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Dodgers lose to Cubs 3-2, still have 3-1 NLCS lead

Top of the ninth.

Austin Barnes struck out looking.

Chris Taylor, after falling behind 0-2, walked.

Cody Bellinger grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.

On to Game 5.

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Cubs strand two in the bottom of the eighth

Austin Barnes at catcher. Tony Cingrani pitching.

Jon Jay was hit by a pitch.

Wade Davis struck out looking after fouling off about five pitches.

Albert Almora singled to left. First and second, one out.

Jason Heyward grounded to second. Taylor was late covering the bag, so they couldn’t turn the double play.

And that’s it for Tony Cingrani. Josh Fields coming into the game to face Kris Bryant.

Bryant grounded to second.

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Justin Turner’s homer brings Dodgers within 3-2 in the top of the eighth

Top of the eighth. Wade Davis pitching, as Joe Maddon asks him to get a six-out save.

Justin Turner homered to DEEP left. And the Wrigley Field crowd got very quiet.

Yasiel Puig walked.

Andre Ethier popped to third.

Curtis Granderson struck out swinging for his fourth strikeout of the night. But wait, Granderson and Dave Roberts got mad and said he fouled it off. The umpires got together and chaged their mind. Joe Maddon was irate, and rightfully so, because it wasn’t fouled. The umps kicked Maddon out of the game. Granderson gets new life at the plate.

And Granderson struck out again anyway.

Yasmani Grandal walked. First and second, two out. Chase Utley batting.

Utley stuck out swinging.

Tough night for Granderson and Utley.

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Cubs go in order in seventh inning

Bottom of seventh. Kenta Maeda pitching.

Willson Contreras struck out swinging.

Addison Russell grounded to short.

Javier Baez flied to deep left-center.

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Dodgers strand two in the top of the seventh

Top of the seventh. Jason Heyward in at right field. Kyle Schwarber if out of the game.

Yasmani Grandal walked on four pitches.

Chase Utley struck out swinging.

Joc Pederson, hitting for Tony Watson, hit a tapper in front of the plate. Contreras threw Grandal out at second, but ball was hit too slowly for them to turn the double play.

With Chris Taylor batting, Pederson took second on a wild pitch.

Taylor walked. First and second, two out.

And that’s it for Jake Arrieta, who gets a huge ovation as he walks off the field. The crowd groaned when Joe Maddon came out to get him. They do not want to see the bullpen.

Left-hander Brian Duensing in to face Cody Bellinger.

Bellinger flied to left. Jon Jay and Addison Russell almost ran into each other and Jay had to go to his knees to make the catch.

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Cubs fans wouldn’t mind Rolando Cuevas getting the ‘L’ out of here

Rolando Cuevas
(Hailey Branson-Potts / Los Angeles Times)

Rolando Cuevas, of Boyle Heights, stood outside Wrigley Field, posing for photos in front of a Cubs Win flag with its giant W.

But he held up a small flag of his own. It had an L.

“This is for ‘lose’ because we’re going to sweep tonight,” he said. “I know it. I called the Dodgers Gods.”

For Cuevas, 45, seeing games at Wrigley Field was on his bucket list. He saw his first game here Tuesday night.

“I was like a kid at Disneyland, taking photos of everything.

“There’s so much tradition. It’s like a living museum. You can feel the American baseball spirit in this field.

Cuevas said the Cubs fans have been so friendly that he didn’t want to tease them too much. Even they got a laugh out of his L flag.

As he posed for a photo, a woman in Cubs gear stopped and did just that.

“Awwww,” she said, grinning.

Nearby, Chicago sports radio show hosts did a live broadcast. There was a table of Dodgers fans in front of them.

“They deserve to be here too,” one said.

Cuevas said Los Angeles will go nuts if the Dodgers go to the World Series. He sure will.

“The mayor should call a state of emergency because everyone’s going to lose their minds,” he said. “So many people have suffered with the Dodgers for so long.”

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Cubs are retired in order in bottom of the sixth

Kyle Schwarber grounded into the shift. Justin Turner, playing where the second baseman normally plays, threw him out.

Kris Bryant struck out swinging.

And that’s it for Ross Stripling. Tony Watson is coming in to face Anthony Rizzo.

Rizzo struck out swinging. The ball hit him, but it doesn’t matter since he swung at the ball.

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Dodgers still trail, 3-1, after top of sixth

Top of the sixth.

Justin Turner singled to left.

Yasiel Puig grounded to the pitcher. Arrieta threw it high to second. Baez jumped to catch it, forced Turner but couldn’t throw to first to complete the double play.

Andre Ethier struck out swinging. Seven strikeouts for Arrieta.

Curtis Granderson struck out swinging. He has struck out three times tonight.

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Cubs take 3-1 lead on Javier Baez’s second homer of game

Bottom of the fifth.

Addison Russell struck out looking.

Javier Baez homered, his second of the game. 3-1 Cubs.

Jon Jay struck out looking.

Jake Arrieta singled to left.

And that’s it for Alex Wood. Ross Stripling coming in.

Albert Almora grounded to the pitcher.

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This just proves that parents are smarter than their kids

Norm and Brittany Alleman.
(Hailey Branson-Potts / Los Angeles Times)

Norm Alleman of Toluca, Ill., doesn’t know how he failed so badly as a parent.

His daughter, Brittany, is, of all things, a Cubs fan.

“We want to win,” said Alleman, wearing a Dodgers jersey at Wrigley Field.

“WE want to win,” said Brittany, sporting a Cubs jersey.

“I hope the Cubs can pull it off tonight,” she said.

“I wish I could bring a broom,” said her father.

He shrugged his shoulders.

“I raised her improperly.”

Alleman, 61, has been a Dodgers fan since he was a kid. Growing up in central Illinois, he got tired of hearing Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals fans squabbling, so he started rooting for Los Angeles.

As a kid, he’d hide under the covers, listening to Vin Scully on the radio, keeping score with a flashlight.

It’s probably good there was no ESPN or Internet back then and that the radio signal was sometimes bad because he probably would have flunked out of school watching ballgames, he said.

Brittany Alleman, 31, shares a birthday with a cousin who convinced her to become a Cubs fan as a kid.

Asked how he took his daughter’s betrayal, Alleman said: “Very badly.”

Adding insult to injury, he said, his son eventually moved to Chicago and became a Cubs fan himself.

“My wife and I are the only ones left,” he said. “If I croaked, she’d probably become a Cubs fan just to be with them.”

He said he was feeling confident about Wednesday’s game. All the Cubs fans he talked to were not.

His daughter laughed. She had bought him the tickets for his birthday. It was his first Postseason game.

If the Cubs are swept?

“You can’t win them all,” she said.

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Dodgers still trail, 2-1, after top of fifth

Top of fifth.

Alex Wood tried to bunt for a hit. Wood thought he was safe. Umpires reviewed, but he was out.

Bad challenge by Roberts.

Chris Taylor struck out swinging and was thrown out at first when the ball got away from Contreras.

Cody Bellinger lined to short.

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Cubs retired in order in bottom of fourth

Kris Bryant grounded to short.

Anthony Rizzo struck out.

Willson Contreras grounded to short. Ball was deflected by Wood, and Taylor had to change directions, making a nice play.

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Dodgers don’t score in top of fourth

Curtis Granderson struck out swining.

Yasmani Grandal walked.

Chase Utley grounded into a 3-6 double play.

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Cubs retired in order in bottom of third

Bottom of third.

Jake Arrieta struck out looking. Four strikeouts for Alex Wood.

I hate the in-game interviews.

Albert Almora grounded to third.

Kyle Schwarber grounded to first.

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Dick’s Sporting Goods jumping the gun a bit on Dodgers NL champions gear

It came in email boxes early today:

“Pending a Dodgers win tonight in the National League Championship Series, a number of Dicks’s Sporting Goods stores will extend hours tonight and Thursday morning to allow customers a chance to get their hands on championship gear!”

Really Dick’s? Have you never heard of jinxing something? If the Dodgers lose tonight, and heaven forbid, lose the series, we all know who to blame.

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Cody Bellinger homers in top of third to cut Cubs’ lead to 2-1

Cody Bellinger hits a solo homerun to rightfield.
Cody Bellinger hits a solo homerun to rightfield.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Remember Dodgers fans, the Cubs scored first in each of the first three games and still lost.

Top of third.

Chris Taylor flied to left.

Cody Bellinger homered to right. 2-1 Cubs.

Justin Turner walked.

Yasiel Puig popped to third.

Andre Ethier lined to second.

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Cubs take 2-0 lead on homers by Willson Contreras and Javier Baez

Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood gives up a solo home run to Cubs Wilson Contreras in the 2nd inning.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Bottom of second.

Anthony Rizzo strikes out swinging.

Willson Contreras homered to DEEP left. 1-0 Cubs.

Addison Russell struck out swinging.

Javier Baez homered to left.

Jon Jay struck out swinging.

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Dodgers go down quietly in top of second

Top of the second.

Curtis Granderson struck out looking.

Yasmani Grandal grounded to first.

Chase Utley was hit by a pitch.

Alex Wood struck out swinging. Arrieta looks really good tonight.

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Cubs go down in order in bottom of first

Bottom of the first. Alex Wood pitching. He hasn’t pitched since about 1986.

Albert Almora flied to center.

With the shift on, Kyle Schwarber lined the other way right at Chris Taylor.

Kris Bryant, who says he is very tired, flied to left.

Alex Wood throws in the first inning.
Alex Wood throws in the first inning.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Dave Roberts has a plan

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Dodgers strand two in the top of the first

Here we go. Game 4. The wind is blowing out at Wrigley Field.

Chris Taylor flied to deep center.

Cody Bellinger swung at a bad pitch for a strikeout. Bellinger has looked out of sorts for the playoffs, swinging at bad pitches and taking good pitches.

Justin Turner walked.

Yasiel Puig singled sharply to left, Turner to second.

Andre Ethier struck out swinging.

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Dodgers fan Joshua Jenson gets a special father-son moment

Cooper and Joshua Jenson
(Hailey Branson-Potts / Los Angeles Times)

Joshua Jenson is a fourth-generation Dodgers fan who remembers watching ball games with his great-grandmother.

And he’s passed that passion on to the fifth generation. Attending Wednesday’s National League Championship Series Game 4 with his 15-year-old son, Cooper, he called baseball “a good father-son time” as they posed for a photo with the Harry Caray statue outside Wrigley Field.

Jenson, a 45-year-old certified public accountant from Edmond, Okla., is a season ticket holder for the minor league Oklahoma City Dodgers.

He’s been a Dodgers fan so long that he didn’t believe his friend who told him in 2014 that the team was moving its triple-A franchise from Albuquerque to Oklahoma City. It was too good to be true.

“The first thing I thought was, ‘We’re getting season tickets. I don’t care the cost,’” he said.

At Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark on Mickey Mantle Drive in Oklahoma City, he and Cooper watched the young superstars Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger get their starts.

And they saw Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson play when they temporarily got shipped to the minors, and Clayton Kershaw when he was coming back from an injury.

Cooper, who’s a left-handed pitcher himself, loved seeing Kershaw.

Jenson, who wore a Brooklyn Dodgers jersey, said he felt good about Wednesday’s game and cherished seeing it at the historic ballpark.

“Both teams have history,” he said. “It would be the greatest thing if the Dodgers played the Yankees in the World Series. Talk about old-school.”

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Corey Seager progressing nicely in his rehab

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts expressed his increased level of confidence that shortstop Corey Seager will be ready for the next round of the playoffs, should the Dodgers advance, after Seager played catch Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.

Seager is scheduled to take swings off a batting tee on Thursday, which is considered a significant test of his injured lower back. Seager sprained a muscle in his back in the first round and was left off the Dodgers’ roster for the National League Championship Series against the Cubs.

“It’s progressing, obviously, in the right direction,” Roberts said.

Seager has been taking part in exercises since Tuesday. The team elected to leave him in Los Angeles, rather than risk aggravating his back on the flight to Chicago. Roberts watched video of Seager’s workouts. Roberts felt encouraged by Seager’s ability to rotate his hips and back in exercises.

“Just seeing him run is a good thing,” Roberts said.

With Seager out, the Dodgers have rotated Chris Taylor and Charlie Culberson at shortstop. Culberson started against left-handed pitchers during the first two games against the Cubs, and Taylor started against right-handed pitchers in the next two games.

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Cubs’ Game 4 lineup

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Dodgers’ Game 4 lineup

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Dave Roberts knows what being down 3-0 is like

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These Dodgers fans have a message for Cubs fans

Josh Escobar, left, Juan Barrera and Miguel Escobar pose beneath their "Blue Crew" note on the Wrigley Field wall.
(Hailey Branson-Potts / Los Angeles Times)

The exterior outfield brick walls at Wrigley Field, just beyond the ivy, are covered in chalked messages from Cubs fans, notes like “Go Cubs Go!” and “Cubs Forever!” and “Holy cow!”

People started writing messages on the wall during last year’s Cubs’ postseason, when the bricks bore a big, red and blue chalked “We Did Not Suck 2016.” Fans brought back the chalk this year.

On Wednesday, with the Cubs trailing 3-0 to the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, a threesome of Los Angeles fans sneaked a few notes of their own onto the bricks.

“Let’s Go Dodgers,” Miguel Escobar, 41, of Northridge wrote in blue chalk, high up on the wall.

He was attending the game with his 16-year-old son, Josh, and his lifelong friend Juan Barrera, 37, of Burbank. They wrote their names and “Blue Crew” on the wall — a subtle message when the Cubs are, of course, also wearing blue.

They almost felt bad, Escobar said, laughing. They were at Tuesday night’s game and, even though the Dodgers won, it was hard to talk any smack because the Cubs fans and their Wrigley Field staff have been so darn friendly.

“Everybody’s so nice, its hard to be mean to them,” he said.

A man in a Cubs hat approached them as they stood by the wall, chalk in hand, wearing Dodgers clothes.

“First time here, guys?” the man asked.

It was, they said.

“Oh, enjoy it!” the man said, delighted. “I want to get out to Dodger Stadium sometime. Hopefully in Game 6!”

Escobar — who still has the ticket stub from his first game at Dodger Stadium in 1990 — said they were feeling good going into Wednesday’s game.

“This is the closest we’ve been in 29 years, one game away,” he said. “We’re really hoping we can party in Wrigley Field tonight.”

If the Dodgers win tonight? He might cry. Actually, he’ll probably cry. He cried last year when the Cubs beat the Dodgers.

“I think we need it,” Barrera said. “The Lakers have won the championship. The Kings. We’re due. I think it’s going to unite the city.”

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Dodgers fans at Wrigley Field are happy, but don’t want to jinx it

Don Hundoble, left, and Mehgin Lawrence are joined in a selfie by strangers in Dodgers gear.
(Hailey Branson-Potts / Los Angeles Times)

Mehgin Lawrence and her dad, Don Hundoble, walked through an emptying Wrigley Field on Tuesday night, wearing Dodgers caps and grinning to themselves.

All around them, Cubs fans wearing their 2016 World Series hoodies and hats mourned the loss.

“Oh, well,” said one Cubs fan to himself. “At least we have the Blackhawks.”

Another: “They’re just better than us.”

Lawrence, 28, of Davenport, Iowa, said she didn’t want to act too excited or to trash-talk the Cubs because she didn’t want to jinx the Dodgers after their win.

“We don’t talk smack because then there’s bad luck,” she said. “But it feels pretty good.”

Lawrence, who was born in Long Beach and has been a Dodgers fan for as long as she can remember, said a Wrigley Field staff member was walking around with a big stack of baseball cards when he spotted her and her dad. He had some old Dodgers baseball cards. Did they want them? She said sure.

They happened to be a 1990 Kirk Gibson card and an Orel Hershiser card from 1988, the last year the Dodgers played in and won a World Series.

Lawrence said it felt lucky. But, again, she didn’t want to jinx it.

As they spoke, a woman in a Dodgers hoodie, Dodgers cap and Dodgers scarf came bounding up to them and hugged them. She grabbed them for a selfie. They’d never met before, but she was just so excited to see fellow L.A. fans. A man jumped in the photo, yelling, “Go, Dodgers!”

Lawrence said she and Hundoble hadn’t wanted to look too excited. But when she saw other Dodgers fans, she couldn’t help it. She got more animated as the game went on.

“You don’t want to draw too much attention to yourself,” she said. “But when the Cubs fans start going home, you get louder.”

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Losing Corey Seager hasn’t hurt Dodgers at all

Chris Taylor celebrates his RBI triple in the fifth inning of NLCS Game 3.
Chris Taylor celebrates his RBI triple in the fifth inning of NLCS Game 3.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Corey who?

On the morning of the opener of the National League Championship Series, the Dodgers announced that All-Star shortstop Corey Seager would not play because of injury. Cubs pitcher Jon Lester likened the impact on the Dodgers to how the Cubs might have been hurt had they lost Kris Bryant, the defending NL most valuable player. ESPN analyst Dan Szymborski calculated that the injury had reduced the Dodgers’ chance to win the series from 57.0% to 49.9% — in other words, “Dodgers favored” to “toss up.”

The only toss the Dodgers might have to worry about at this point: Who will toss the ceremonial first pitch at Game 1 of the World Series?

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Dodgers’ bullpen finally gives up some hits

Alex Avila, a backup catcher, succeeded Tuesday where 31 consecutive Cubs had failed.

He got a hit off a Dodgers relief pitcher.

Dodger relievers had retired 29 out of the 31 batters they faced in the National League Championship Series before Avila lined a single off Ross Stripling leading off the bottom of the ninth inning.

Albert Almora followed Avila’s hit with a ground-rule double to left field, ending Stripling’s outing after two batters.

At that point, manager Dave Roberts turned to old faithful, Kenley Jansen, and the next three Cubs were retired in order — the final two by strikeout.

Before Avila’s hit, the only two Cubs to reach base off the bullpen were Anthony Rizzo, who was hit by a Jansen pitch in Game 2, and Kyle Schwarber, on a walk issued by Brandon Morrow in the eighth inning Tuesday.

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Andre Ethier is there when the Dodgers need him

Never since 1988 have the Dodgers been this close to the World Series. They’ve been in the National League Championship Series since then, but they’ve never won three games in the NLCS since 1988.

One more win. OK, actually five more wins. But right now, let’s just focus on one more win.

I hope Andre Ethier’s back isn’t bothering him after Game 3, because I’d love to see him in left field every time a right-hander starts in the playoffs.

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