Spring Training Miscellany: Darvish Makes the Rangers Look Silly, Big Boys Go Deep, Cubs Win

The Cubs toppled the Rangers 5-1 today thanks to some mashing from the big boys. Kris Bryant and Kyle Schwarber both went deep, and together accounted for all the Cubs’ RBI in the game.

It was especially nice to see Schwarber working good at bats off of a lefty (albeit a possibly broken one in Matt Moore, who often features reverse splits, so maybe I should stop typing now). Schwarber also combined with Javy Baez and Willson Contreras on a great defensive relay. Oh, and he also passed up Ian Happ for the Cubs spring OPS lead. Good day for Schwarber.

  • Yu Darvish was great again today, striking out seven over 6.0 innings, allowing just three hits, no walks, and one run. You know Darvish was feeling good today against his old mates when he was able to straight up mess with them:
  • To the average pitcher I say: good freaking luck trying to do that and then deliver a pitch with even the remotest chance of actually locating the pitch.
  • Not just messing with the Rangers, I mean. Making them look silly:
  • Darvish was sitting at 95-96 mph today, by the way. That’s just fine. devilish grin dot gif dot heh heh heh
  • Steve Cishek and Carl Edwards Jr. combined to finish the game out, each pitching more than an inning. Always nice to see them work on pitching, sitting down, and then going back in.
  • Speaking of body control (well, I mean, I did up there with Darvish), Anthony Rizzo has impressive amounts of it, even when he loses his footing:
  • Whoa, nice grab, minor league signee Wynton Bernard:
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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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