LOS ANGELES — The nickname Noah Syndergaard had when his fastball approached 100 mph as a younger New York Mets pitcher no longer fits. The Dodgers right-hander still has the Nordic-sounding name and looks, but he is a mere shadow of the intimidator they called Thor, after the hammer-wielding god of Norse mythology.
Syndergaard’s four-seam fastball averaged just 91.0 mph on Friday night, down nearly 2 mph from this season’s average of 92.9 mph and well below his pre-Tommy John surgery average of 98.0 mph. His sinking fastball averaged 91.4 mph, down from his average of 92.5 mph.
But his hammer-less toolbox wasn’t empty. Syndergaard used a highly effective 86-mph changeup to fashion a quality start, one of the few Dodgers highlights in an eventual 8-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs before a crowd of 52,298 in Chavez Ravine.
Syndergaard gave up three runs and six hits in six innings, striking out nine — eight with his changeup — and walking two in his 92-pitch outing.
He struck out the side — Patrick Wisdom, Eric Hosmer and Edwin Rios — with changeups in the sixth, and the Dodgers trimmed Chicago’s lead to 3-2 in the seventh when Max Muncy lined a solo homer to right field, his fifth homer in four games.
Dodgers right-hander Brusdar Graterol retired the side in order in the seventh, but with the heart of the Cubs order — switch hitter Ian Happ, right-handed-hitting Seiya Suzuki and left-handed-hitting Cody Bellinger — up in the eighth, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made a somewhat curious decision to summon right-hander Andre Jackson instead of left-handers Alex Vesia and Caleb Ferguson or right-handers Yency Almonte and Shelby Miller.
Happ, who singled, doubled and walked in his first three plate appearances, led off with a 423-foot home run into the right-center field pavilion for a 4-2 lead. Suzuki, making his 2023 debut after his return from a left oblique strain, followed with a homer into the left-field pavilion for a 5-2 lead.
Jackson got Bellinger, the former Dodgers outfielder who was playing his first game as a visitor in Chavez Ravine, to fly to deep center, but Wisdom homered to left for a 6-2 Cubs lead.
Yan Gomes, who singled and scored in the third and hit a solo homer in the fifth, led off the ninth with a homer to left off Jackson, who became the first Dodgers reliever to allow four homers in a game since Johnny Klippstein in 1958. Haap added an RBI double later in the inning for an 8-2 lead.
That was more than enough support for Cubs left-hander Justin Steele, who gave up two runs and three hits in seven innings, striking out eight and walking one, to improve to 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA in three starts.
Dodgers utility man Chris Taylor, who entered Friday with an .091 average (three for 33) and 15 strikeouts, lined an 0-and-1 slider from Steele over the wall in left-center, his third homer of the season leaving his bat at 109 mph and traveling 412 feet, for a 1-1 tie in the third.
The Cubs took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Bellinger lined a leadoff double to right, took third on Wisdom’s groundout and scored on Hosmer’s slow roller to first. Chicago pushed the lead to 3-1 in the fifth when Syndergaard left a first-pitch changeup middle-in to Gomes, who hit a towering solo home run to left-center field.
