Spring Training Miscellany: Cubs Split Two, Darvish Pitches Well, Prospects Get Action, More
The Cubs played a couple games yesterday, winning the first at Sloan over the Mariners (well, the Mariners who aren’t presently in Japan opening the season), and dropping the second against the Royals in Surprise. That’s a city. Not a weird way to end a sentence before a clown jumps out of a cake or something.
You already know the biggest “news” out of those games, and it’s Yu Darvish leaving early with a blister, about which he is not terribly concerned. He pitched well before that:
Before leaving with a blister, Yu Darvish K'd 6 batters in his 4th Spring Training start. pic.twitter.com/2TAXFJ2onP
— Cubs Talk (@NBCSCubs) March 20, 2019
Other bits from the games …
- Young Cubs pitchers in the second game were pretty wild (or the zone was especially tight), as just about everyone logged at least one walk. Thomas Hatch got the start and struggled badly, allowing all eight of the Royals’ runs in his two innings. What was most interesting about the scoreless relief innings that followed was probably not the walks, though, it was the identities of the guys who pitched them: Allen Webster, Randy Rosario, Dillon Maples, Rowan Wick, James Norwood, and Jordan Minch. Grouped together perhaps because they’re all guys who could be depth relief contributors this year? Even if that wasn’t the intent, you can certainly see it.
- Top prospect Miguel Amaya got into the second game after Victor Caratini, and he notched a hit. Fun stuff.
- Speaking of Caratini:
I can think of several reasons this should not be possible. pic.twitter.com/BN8E5QC7tY
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 20, 2019
Also, Victor crushed this ball. A good 0-2 pitch, elevated at the chest, and Caratini still nearly sent it out to center.
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 20, 2019
- Mark Zagunis just keeps tantalizing me with the Spring power … he homered *again,* his fourth on the Spring:
- One more highlight from that game, as Johnny Field lives up to his name:
- Meanwhile, in the game at Sloan, Nico Hoerner had a triple, because of course he did. And Cole Roederer went deep in his first Spring Training at bat.
- The good news from that game was Willson Contreras returning to the starting lineup (finger), throwing out a runner, and notching a hit. Hopefully that really was not much of an injury.
- Brad Brach pitched the 9th, allowing a walk and a homer and notching one strikeout. Sure hope he’s OK for the first month of the season.
- There was some weird beanball type stuff in this one:
Edwards tossed for hitting Austin Nola. Contreras got hit in the previous inning and wasn't thrilled about it. Bryant was hit earlier too. Nola had some words for Contreras before heading to first. I know I've been gone for two weeks, but it's still spring training, right?
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) March 19, 2019
- Tyler Chatwood pitched a perfect 8th inning with three straight groundouts.
