Shohei Ohtani, Pete Crow-Armstrong put on show as

CHICAGO — Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel went instantly to Shohei Ohtani’s competitors for NL MVP with his gripe.

Ebel, who coached Cubs star heart fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong with Team USA in the World Baseball Classic this 12 months, gave him grief for serving as the designated hitter on Wednesday. He couldn’t play heart discipline every day?

Ohtani and Crow-Armstrong had just traded leadoff home runs, so Crow-Armstrong told reporters that he shot back with: “Well, it took your guy 10 pitches, it only took me one.”

He was exaggerating barely. Ohtani’s leadoff homer got here on the seventh pitch of the at-bat against Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga. And that, of course, wasn’t actually how Crow-Armstrong felt.

“A [seven]-pitch at-bat to start the game and finish it off with a 110 [mph] ball at 20 degrees is pretty ridiculous,” Crow-Armstrong said.

The National League MVP race reworked into a head-to-head showdown between the frontrunners at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, as the Dodgers fell to the Cubs 7-6.

“Over the course of a season, there’s a lot of ups and downs,” Ohtani, a four-time MVP, said through interpreter Will Ireton. “It’s too early to think about that. So in a way for me it’s more important for the team to win and for me to contribute to that.”

Though Crow-Armstrong performed along with the MVP discuss, he got here around to a comparable sentiment.

“I would be crazy to say that I don’t want to win an MVP, but if we’re talking about having priorities straight, I think mine are pretty straight,” he said. “It’s not on the forefront of my mind. It’s fun to joke about and it’s fun to acknowledge and I think it’s absolutely OK to pay attention to. But it’s not following me up to the plate.

“If you guys want to talk about all this back and forth, like, I really should go get in the lab and start pitching. I really should.”

Ohtani was thought of the runaway MVP favourite early in the 12 months, while his pitching efficiency also put him in the Cy Young dialog. But his prolonged absence from the mound (left knee issue) and Crow-Armstrong’s contributions on offense and protection have made the race more attention-grabbing.

Crow-Armstrong entered Wednesday main the majors in fWAR (7.5), adopted by Ohtani (6.4).

“Simply put, just having your name in the same conversation as someone as profound as [Ohtani] feels, it’s awesome and it’s a nice nod,” Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s cool. But … I would feel much more accomplished taking them (the Dodgers) down at some point. I want to see this group (the Cubs) in October because I think it’ll be a dangerous, dangerous group in the playoffs.”

Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts irked Cubs followers a week and a half in the past when, requested to consider Ohtani’s season total, he said he’ll still be the NL MVP.

“I haven’t followed the race,” Roberts said before the sport Wednesday. “I have followed what Pete’s doing, and he’s figured some things out with the bat. “He’s having a heck of a year. And he has rightfully made it a lot closer than most people expected. He’s had a tremendous season.”

That continued in the finale of the three-game collection, for Crow-Armstrong and Ohtani.

Ohtani, struck first, notching the thirty second leadoff homer of his profession and twenty ninth as a Dodger, breaking a tie with Davey Lopes for the second-most in franchise historical past, behind Mookie Betts (32).

In the underside half of the inning, Crow-Armstrong matched Ohtani with a tying blast.

The next inning, he delivered a two-run double, and in the fourth, he mashed a two-run blast off the right-field scoreboard to put the Cubs up 5-1.

Not to be outdone, Ohtani led off the fifth inning with a single, but the Dodgers failed to rating. Then in the eighth, he made it his first multi-homer recreation of the season, with a two-run shot that trimmed the Cubs’ lead to 7-6.

“He’s a great player,” Ohtani said of Crow-Armstrong. “But I’m really focused on myself on the hitting side of things right now, really working towards hopefully getting back on the mound and working on that side of the game as well.”

Ohtani’s timeline back to the mound is nebulous at this level. Roberts didn’t have a particular day circled to resume taking part in catch, and Ohtani didn’t present one, either.

“It’s getting pretty good day by day,” Ohtani said of his knee. “It’s hard to tell at this point what the schedule is going to look like. First I need to do [weighted ply balls], then go into long toss, then go into a bullpen progression. Rather than rush the progression of this I would rather make sure we’re headed in the right direction. But making sure we’re taking the right steps.”

The Dodgers’ rotation depth means he doesn’t essentially need to construct up to a full starter’s workload by the end of the 12 months. Ohtani said he’d go away the timing of his development up to the entrance workplace.

“Any innings we get from him are bonuses, given he’s a two-way player,” Roberts said. “Whether it’s one inning, two innings, three innings, I’m not too concerned about the timeline. … I certainly see him as a starter, but how much he could give us, to then have somebody [piggybacking] behind him, that we don’t know yet.”

Freddie Freeman pulled

Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman left the sport in the underside of the fifth inning after a pitch hit his proper hand. But X-rays got here back adverse, Roberts said.

“I obviously didn’t come out of that at-bat because I knew it hit my bat as well,” Freeman said. “It hit bat, then hand and pinched my hand onto the bat. Next pitch, I swung. I could swing, and I swung again. As the adrenaline wore off, pain got a little bit more.”

Freeman said he expects to be prepared to return to the lineup by the Dodgers’ next recreation, against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday.