CHICAGO — Drew Smyly and Yan Gomes tumbled to the grass under a sunny sky at a picturesque Wrigley Field. Reclining on his side for one brief moment, Smyly grinned.
It was over, but it was a really fun afternoon for the Chicago Cubs.
Smyly lost his bid for a perfect game when he collided with his catcher while trying to field an eighth-inning dribbler that went for an infield single in a 13-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday.
“That’s a tough way to end it,” Smyly said. “You feel like you’re really close.”
Nico Hoerner, Cody Bellinger, Trey Mancini and Patrick Wisdom homered as Chicago won for the fifth time in six games. Hoerner finished with four hits and four RBIs, and Wisdom and Mancini each drove in three runs.
Leaning heavily on his fastball and curveball, Smyly (2-1) struck out 10 and walked none in 7 2/3 innings. He threw 68 of his season-high 103 pitches for strikes.
“Amazing performance,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “That was fun to watch.”
David Peralta accounted for Los Angeles’ only baserunner against Smyly on a 32.9 mph leadoff bouncer in the eighth that trickled between third base and the mound. Smyly and Gomes each went for the grounder, and the catcher tumbled over the pitcher as the left-hander picked up the ball.
“It just came to the point where both of us wanted it. He got to it before I did,” Gomes said while wearing a Northwestern University football helmet with a Cubs emblem on one side. “I’m not as quick as I used to be trying to jump out of the way and I just ended up riding him and becoming a cool picture.”
Smyly was checked by Ross and an athletic trainer, but he stayed in the game. He retired Miguel Vargas on a popup to third and struck out James Outman before he was replaced by Jeremiah Estrada.
The 33-year-old Smyly received a thunderous ovation from the crowd of 30,381 as he made his way to the dugout.
“Pitching here at Wrigley Field is so special,” Smyly said. “It’s so awesome. Every single game the atmosphere is just off the charts.”
There have been 23 perfect games, including Don Larsen’s in the World Series. Seattle’s Félix Hernández pitched the last in 2012.
Smyly also beat Los Angeles with 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball in his previous start. He said Friday’s pregame bullpen session was the worst one that he could remember.
“I told Yan before the game, ‘Sometimes those can be your best games,'” Smyly said.
Estrada finished a one-hitter for Chicago. Nick Madrigal robbed Jason Heyward with a diving grab at second base for the final out.
The Cubs became the second team to score double-digit runs six times in its first 19 games, matching the 1885 Chicago White Stockings.
The Dodgers lost for the fourth time in six games. Julio Urías (3-2) allowed five runs and seven hits in 3 1/3 innings after losing to the Cubs in his previous start.
“I think today was just, across the board, just wasn’t very good,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Browne committed to rejoining the Boilermakers on Friday after entering his name in the NCAA transfer portal Wednesday.
The 6-foot-4, 210-pound redshirt sophomore started two games for Purdue in 2024 but moved on amid the program’s head coaching change and went through spring practice under new Tar Heels coach Bill Belichick.
North Carolina landed a commitment from South Alabama transfer quarterback Gio Lopez on Thursday.
Browne and freshman Bryce Baker were North Carolina’s lone scholarship quarterbacks available for spring practice and were competing with three walk-ons while sixth-year senior Max Johnson recovers from a broken leg.
Browne threw for 636 yards, rushed for 240 yards and scored four touchdowns while appearing in nine games as Hudson Card’s backup over the past two seasons at Purdue, earning starts in losses to Illinois and Oregon.
Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood showed glimpses of the growing pains he will experience as a freshman and flashes of the promise that made him the nation’s top-rated high school football recruit in the Wolverines’ spring game Saturday.
Underwood was 12 of 26 for 187 yards with a scrimmage-ending, 88-yard pass to tight end Jalen Hoffman on a reverse flea-flicker in a 17-0 win for the Blue over the Maize.
He also recovered his fumble, had a pair of delay-of-game penalties, several errant throws – high and wide – and some dropped. Underwood lost 12 yards on two sacks and gained 17 yards on three runs.
“He did well,” coach Sherrone Moore said. “Made some really, good throws and had some things we need to clean up and get better at.”
As the Wolverines wrapped up spring football in front of about 40,000 fans at the Big House, all eyes were on Underwood and he has become comfortable with that.
“It’s just the pressure that came with my arm,” Underwood told The Detroit News earlier this spring. “I can’t stop that.”
Underwood was sacked on his first snap and his first completion went for a loss. He did throw some darts, usually in the flat, and was quick enough to escape collapsed pockets to pick up yardage with his feet.
Underwood is expected to compete with sophomore Jadyn Davis and Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene for playing time ahead of the season-opening game on Aug. 30 at home against Fresno State.
“It’s a battle,” Moore said. “It’s going to go all the way to fall camp.”
Underwood is motivated to start and kick off a legacy-building career with lofty goals.
“A couple of Heismans and at least one natty,” Underwood said last month in an interview on the Rich Eisen Show.
Underwood knows there will be people doubting he can live up to the hype.
‘He’s just a freshman. He won’t be good enough,'” Underwood said. “I might keep that chip my whole three years.”
He attended at Belleville High School, which is about 15 miles east of Ann Arbor, and flipped his commitment to Michigan after telling LSU coaches last year he intended to play there.
Tom Brady, a former Wolverine and seven-time Super Bowl winner, talked with Underwood during the school’s recruitment via FaceTime and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people, also connected with him.
Jay Underwood told the Wall Street Journal that his son is expected to make more than $15 million at Michigan, but that doesn’t guarantee he will take the first snap next fall.
“He wants to earn everything,” Moore has said. “He doesn’t want to be given anything.”
Hoffman said Underwood has simply blended in with his teammates.
“He’s really humble, like not a big head, ego, nothing like that,” he said. “Comes into work and every day, he wants to get better every day. He’s not riding off his success in high school. He’s really trying to be one of those top players in college football.”
Underwood participated in practices with the team before it beat Alabama in a bowl game, enrolled in classes in January and gained a lot experience in 14 private practices before a public scrimmage.
“Football is football,” he told MLive.com. “School is a little bit more overwhelming now.”
Missouri State senior football player Todric McGee died early Saturday from what police believe was a “possible accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
A spokesperson for the Springfield (Missouri) Police Department said they found McGee at his residence while performing a wellness check Friday morning. He was transported to a hospital, where he died from his injuries.
He was 21.
“Our football family is in shock and in mourning at the loss of Todric,” Bears head football coach Ryan Beard said in a statement. “We ask everyone to please respect the privacy of his family and our MoState football team at this time as we begin the healing process. Join us in praying for Todric and the people who loved him.”
McGee, a fifth-year senior, started each of the past two seasons for the Bears. He earned All-Missouri Valley Football Conference honors in 2023.
“This tragedy has shaken our football program to the core, and we want them to know we are here to support them in every way possible at this extremely difficult time,” athletic director Patrick Ransdell said in the school’s statement.
The investigation into McGee’s death is ongoing, police said.