Spring Training Miscellany: Mets 9, Cubs 4; Cubs 6, Royals 5 – March 15, 2014

cactusThe Cubs went down early to the Royals in Surprise, but rallied with six runs in the 8th and 9th innings to win. The Cubs went down early to the Mets in Las Vegas, and rallied to tie things up, but ultimately lost big. C’est la vie.

  • Jeff Samardzija’s start against the Royals didn’t match that of James Shields, who struck out 10 over six innings, giving up just one hit. Samardzija gave up seven hits and three walks over his 3.2 innings, which is obviously awful, but he seems to have one start like this every Spring.
  • The winner in that Royals game, by the way? Recently-returned Rule 5 draftee, Marcos Mateo (who gave up a solo homer and struck out two). Chang-Yong Lim threw a scoreless, hitless, walkless inning with a strikeout.
  • The offense in that Royals game was non-existent until the reserves came in, with the exception of Brett Jackson, who had a couple hits – including a homer – and drove in five (one strikeout). Mike Olt went 0-4 with two strikeouts.
  • Over in Vegas, starter Tsuyoshi Wada was hit hard early (4 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 2 IP). It was the first time I’d seen him pitch, and he didn’t look to be hitting his spots particularly well. He’s likely fighting for a spot in the AAA rotation at this point (if he wants to stick with the Cubs). One of the guys he’s fighting with, Carlos Pimentel, looked pretty good in his 2.2 innings of work, walking one and striking out four.
  • Zac Rosscup, whom we haven’t seen much this year and is going to start out in the Iowa bullpen, gave up three earned on two walks and a homer. Justin Grimm gave up four hits in his inning of work, allowing two earned runs.
  • Blake Parker threw a scoreless inning, walking one and striking one out.
  • Javy Baez went 0-4 with a couple strikeouts, and, at times, looked unnecessarily hack-tastic. He’s a young man with a fantastic bat, but he does still need some seasoning.
  • Anthony Rizzo was the big stick in that Mets game, going deep twice and walking once. If it were the regular season, I’d be all RIZZOMG.
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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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