Spring Training Miscellany: Cubs Battle Back to Fly the T, Chatwood Debuts, More
The Cubs tied today’s game at Sloan against the Mariners 9-9 after a thrilling (can it be thrilling in the Spring?) comeback that saw them score five in the 8th and two in the 9th on a Mike Freeman home run. They were down 9-2 at one point. There’s something about the Mariners that inspires the Cubs to put together a crazy comeback.
The big league regulars – Almora, Baez, Rizzo, Russell, and Heyward – were all in for only a couple plate appearances, and none had a hit, so the back-ups and minor leaguers had to take care of business. Kris Bryant was also going to start in this one, but was scratched due to illness.
More from the day …
- Tyler Chatwood made his Cubs debut in this one, throwing a scoreless inning while keeping the ball on the ground:
- Carrie Muskat reports that the plan is for the Cubs’ other starting pitchers to also go about an inning when they make their Spring Training debuts this week.
- Unfortunately for the Mariners, their starting pitcher, Felix Hernandez did not come out of his outing unscathed, taking a Victor Caratini liner off the arm. There’s good news, though:
#Cubs Chatwood on M's King Felix: "I hope he's OK. He's one of the great pitchers in baseball and you never want to see that. I hope he's OK and everything turns out to be all right."
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) February 26, 2018
M's update: X-ray on Felix Hernandez was negative.
— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) February 26, 2018
- Brian Duensing got lit up in his inning of work, striking out two quickly, and then giving up a couple dingers and four runs overall. He then also notched the final out of the inning via strikeout. Obligatory Spring Training is just Spring Training comment. (In all seriousness, though, that does seem to be the kind of line you’d see from a guy who was just getting in his work in his first outing.)
- Steve Cishek also made his Cubs debut today, throwing a scoreless inning.
- The Mariners were free-swinging on the day, striking out 14 times overall. Cubs youngsters Brad Markey and David Garner each struck out three over their inning of work.
- Hopefully this is a sign of Zobrist feeling much better and getting into game action soon-ish:
Ben Zobrist (back) on the field for the first time for drills today
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) February 26, 2018
- We might get to see Shohei Ohtani face the Cubs in his next outing:
Angels saying Ohtani will pitch Friday, either in a B game, or against the Cubs in Tempe.
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) February 26, 2018
- The park was looking lovely today:
https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/968248071447597057
Spring has sprung. pic.twitter.com/7Y2G6c4UuQ
— Tim Abel (@timabel) February 26, 2018
- And a reminder that you can watch tomorrow’s game against the White Sox:
Prepping today. Back at it tomorrow with #Cubs and White Sox 2p @WGNTV. pic.twitter.com/CPZwIg8PqU
— Len and JD (@lenandjd) February 26, 2018
- Though, a mild bummer about that one:
Top White Sox prospect Eloy Jimenez slowed by sore left knee, won't play vs. Cubs tomorrow https://t.co/sLhCt0ilvc
— Paul Sullivan (@PWSullivan) February 26, 2018
- This is going on right now, so take a look:
Big sale at Fanatics today, fellow Cubs fans – check it out and TREATYOSELF: https://t.co/V8fRQmjjdj pic.twitter.com/rOewi8vlNw
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) February 26, 2018
