Last night in game one of a four-game series between the .500 Dodgers and the surprising Cubs, an improbable sextet of unknown Dodgers pitchers (Grove-not Lefty, Bickford-not Mary, Bruihl, Almonte, Ferguson-not Joe, and Graterol) held the Cubs bats to 2 runs in a 6-2 loss. Rookie outfielder, James Outman hit two home runs and drove in five runs. I don’t think any of the heavy bettors put too much scratch on Outman.

Today’s matchup probably favored the Dodgers as Julio Urias, the Dodgers steadiest and healthiest starter the past few years, faced off against Drew Smyly. Baseball being baseball, the Cubs clobbered L.A and Urias for 5 earned runs in 3.1 innings. Some poor sap that nobody’s heard of, Jacob Hubert Reed aka Jake, allowed only 6 earned runs in 2/3 of an inning in a 13-0 loss. Smyly was nigh-perfect for 7+ innings and only allowed a weak infield hit.

None of this is meant to be predictive of what will happen to either team or any of the highlighted players this season or for the course of their careers.

Coincidentally, 11 years ago today, Sox starter, Philip Humber pitched a perfect game against the Mariners in Seattle. The former Mets 1st round pick (2004) never quite lived up to his billing beyond that day 11 years ago. In a ML career that covered some 8 seasons, he went 16-23 with a 5.31 ERA in 371 innings. In 2012, Humber was 5-5 with a 6.44 ERA despite the perfect game. Coincidences aside, nobody can ever take away the perfect game from Humber and the White Sox-even if it wasn’t more representative of his overall career.

Smyly likely will come closest to throwing a perfect game today, but I wouldn’t bet against someone else bettering his effort tonight.