Spring Training Miscellany: Cubs Fall, Darvish Feels Good, Heyward Scratch, Rizzo’s Hair, Alzolay to Throw, More
The Cubs dropped today’s Cactus League game against the Diamondbacks 5-4, with all of the Cubs’ runs coming in the first and all of the Diamondbacks’ runs coming in the second. Were it a real game, boy howdy, I’d be steaming. Hooray for Spring Training chill mode!
Kris Bryant’s string of consecutive times reaching base was extended to five in this game (which, in Spring Training for a regular, can be like a week’s worth of games!), and then ultimately ended on a groundout. He’ll spend a few weeks at AAA to open the season to work out the kinks.
The big news today was Yu Darvish feeling good, healthy, and hitting 95/96 mph on the gun (suggesting, yeah, he really was feeling good).
- More good stuff from the Darvish outing, and his good sense of humor afterwards:
Darvish was asked why he's not using an interpreter this season. "Interpreter is expensive for the organization," he said. Well, where'd the organization use that money, one reporter asked. Darvish was stumped on that one.
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) February 26, 2019
Everyone needs to relax, Darvish and everyone was laughing after he made the comment and the follow up question was said in jest. https://t.co/rLPc354zD0
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) February 26, 2019
How important was today's outing for #Cubs Darvish? "Today, I felt like it was the first game in my life."
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) February 26, 2019
Yu Darvish's day is done. He threw 36 pitches (17 strikes) in 1.1 innings. Walked four. Generated one swing and miss. No hits allowed, but control spotty in first start since Aug. 18 rehab outing. The positive is obviously health and velo (94-96 mph). pic.twitter.com/3P0eigugWD
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) February 26, 2019
Darvish done with one out in the 2nd. Walked 4, but allowed no hits. No strikeouts. He was sitting 94-95 with his fastball, touched 96. Seemed to use quite a bit of his arsenal. He wasn't disastrously wild, but clearly wasn't as sharp as he'd like. That's what the spring is for.
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) February 26, 2019
Yu Darvish floats to the mound for a second inning of work. pic.twitter.com/1jXDObXThe
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) February 26, 2019
8月以来の実戦登板してきました！
ストレートは球速も力もありましたが、変化球がストライク取れず苦労しました。 ですが痛みなくまたマウンドに戻れたことが本当に大きかったです！
次の試合は結果も出るように頑張ります！— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) February 26, 2019
- Jason Heyward was scratched at the last minute from this one for “personal reasons,” per the Cubs. No other details beyond that, which necessarily leads to people doing crazy speculating. Like I said with Ben Zobrist’s late report: for a veteran position player, the bar to cross for getting a day off is pretty darn low. It’s really not worth speculating on the reasons in this case. It could be anything.
- Respect me:
Rizzo rbi single pic.twitter.com/vBJYFMORc2
— Jesse Rogers (@ESPNChiCubs) February 26, 2019
- Also, Rizzo has brought back the boy band look, presumably in advance of shaving it off for Joe Maddon’s Respect Bald event:
https://twitter.com/realcubsinsider/status/1100508731870085120
Play ball!
🔊 https://t.co/rtqjXQs65a pic.twitter.com/VKGmd4OOhG
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) February 26, 2019
- Top Cubs pitching prospect Adbert Alzolay (side tightness) will be throwing again soon:
Cubs pitching prospect Adbert Alzolay scheduled to resume throwing (light catch) later this week (Thur or Fri).
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) February 26, 2019
- He wasn’t going to make the team out of Spring Training anyway after a mostly lost 2018 season, but it would still be nice to see him get into a Spring game. Fun for him, anyway.
- Proof of life:
Bote’s back: pic.twitter.com/bWdk4f6weo
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) February 26, 2019
- Deals, deals tonight:
Yo! The official Cubs shop has extra stuff on clearance plus free shipping tonight: https://t.co/R0Q0oZL5K7 pic.twitter.com/SkhNnvhtHh
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) February 27, 2019
