Spring Training Miscellany: Cubs 7, Giants 9 – March 2, 2013

cactusWell, you can’t beat the World Champs every time …

The Giants’ batters battered Cubs pitching today, and the only salvo is that at least the Giants were using many of their regulars. The Cubs staged a mini rally in the 9th (remember when they used to do the futile rally thing in the 9th all the time last year?), collecting consecutive hits from Junior Lake, Dave Sappelt and Logan Watkins, followed by a sacrifice fly by Brett Jackson, but it was for naught.

  • Most of the damage came off of Barret Loux (4 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 2 IP), Jaye Chapman (2 ER, 2 H, 1 IP), and Brian Schlitter (2 ER, 3 H, 1 IP), none of whom will be making the Opening Day roster.
  • Carlos Villanueva made his second start on the Spring, and was much more successful: 3 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, and 1 ER. Five base runners in three innings isn’t great, but he’s headed in the right direction. He struck out two, and that earned run came on a solo home run to Pablo Sandoval.
  • Rob Whitenack bounced back from his disastrous first outing, this time completing his inning by giving up just a single walk (though he added another wild pitch).
  • Brian Bogusevic had himself a day: he tripled, singled, and walked in his three plate appearances. I still lean toward Dave Sappelt winning that final bench job (5th outfielder), but I do like Bogusevic as something of a bounce back candidate this year (insofar as a bench guy can bounce back, that is). The fact that he bats left-handed, and the Cubs already have two left-handed starting outfielders, is going to work against him. Then again, it might be nice to occasionally rest Alfonso Soriano on a day with an entirely left-handed hitting outfield against a righty who’s weak against lefties.
  • Steve Clevenger had an errorless debut at first base, and added a couple hits.
  •  

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    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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