Cubs 7, Dodgers 6: Crow-Armstrong's Two Homers Finish a Sweep of L.A.

August 5, 2026 - Chicago - They traded leadoff homers in the first, which felt like a preview of an MVP argument more than a Wednesday afternoon. By the ninth, it was just survival.

Pete Crow-Armstrong went deep twice and drove in four, and the Chicago Cubs held off a five-run eighth from the Los Angeles Dodgers for a 7-6 win that completed a three-game sweep at Wrigley Field.

An MVP race in the first inning

Shohei Ohtani and Crow-Armstrong both led off the game with home runs. Same inning, same kind of swing, two different uniforms, and another data point in a two-man race for NL MVP that has been running all summer.

Chicago kept stacking. Dansby Swanson and Crow-Armstrong doubled home runs in the second off Eric Lauer (6-6). Crow-Armstrong made it 5-1 in the fourth with a two-run shot that caromed off the right-field videoboard, his 26th of the season. Nico Hoerner added three hits. The Cubs looked like a club that has been 32-15 since June 11 for a reason.

Shota Imanaga (8-9) gave Chicago five innings of one-run ball, eight hits, six strikeouts, no walks. He wasn't unhittable. He was steady enough that a 5-1 lead felt like it should hold.

It almost didn't.

The five-run eighth that came up short

Los Angeles finally broke through in a big way in the eighth. Ohtani's two-run homer off Ryan Zeferjahn, his 26th, cut the lead to one. Max Muncy crushed a three-run shot in the middle of a five-run frame that turned a comfortable afternoon into a one-run nail-biter. Mookie Betts finished with four hits after a .167 skid over his previous 25 games. The Dodgers had life.

They also had a runner on second later with a chance to tie or take the lead, and Kiké Hernández struck out swinging to end the threat. Jacob Webb worked a perfect ninth for his sixth save. Wrigley exhaled.

Freddie Freeman left in the fifth after a foul ball hit the side of his right hand. X-rays were negative, and Freeman said he was OK. Small mercy on a night when the defending champs needed every healthy bat they had.

Six in a row for the Dodgers

Los Angeles was swept for the second straight series and dropped its sixth straight game, the club's longest skid since a seven-game slide in July 2025. That is not the August form of a team sitting atop the NL West. The rotation has been fine enough. The late innings and the series results have not.

Chicago improved its grip on the top NL wild-card spot and won for the fourth time in five games. Crow-Armstrong keeps forcing the MVP conversation with nights like this. Ohtani keeps answering. On Wednesday, the Cubs had one more big swing when it counted early, and one more out when it counted late.

AthX Engine angle

Crow-Armstrong led the entire slate with 15 AthX Engine hitting fantasy points. Ohtani finished with 12 on two homers of his own. Chicago's 11 team fantasy points don't look like a blowout because they weren't one. The board mirrored the box score: loud early offense, a late Dodgers surge, and just enough left to hold.

Track Pete Crow-Armstrong, Shohei Ohtani, and the Cubs and Dodgers boards on the marketplace. Information only; not financial advice.

What it means

Sweeps in August against the best team in the West are the kind of series that show up again in October conversations, even if October is still a long way off. Chicago is playing like a wild-card favorite. Los Angeles is playing like a club that needs to remember how it usually wins series.

*Sources: MLB.com gameday final, ESPN recap, AthX Engine daily scoring for August 5, 2026. Information only; not financial advice.*