For 3 innings the plan worked. Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages singled to open the game, and Tommy Edman turned it into instant offense with a 3-run homer off Boyd. Wrobleski cruised behind it early, and the Dodgers carried a lead into the middle innings looking like they'd finally snap their funk.
Then the wheels came off. The Cubs had already chipped away with 2 in the 2nd and 2 more in the 3rd before the game flipped in the 6th, when a reliever walked the bases loaded and Tanner Scott came in to try to strand it. He struck out the first hitter, then walked in a run after getting ahead 0-2, and a two-run single blew it open. The Dodgers had led once and never threatened to get it back.
Chicago's offense did the rest, tacking on another run in the 5th to complement the 6th-inning explosion. Boyd wasn't sharp — he'd been stellar in his last start against St. Louis — but the Cubs didn't need him to be once the Dodgers' bullpen imploded behind him. It's the exact type of late-inning collapse that's plagued LA for weeks now.
LA leaves Wrigley having dropped 4 straight and, worse, having done it in the same way each time — a lead built early, a bullpen that can't hold it. The Cubs, meanwhile, get a signature win over the sport's best record and a Boyd start that, even shaky, kept them in first-place position in the wild-card race.