NEWSLETTER
The Cubs and Giants tied at five today, so fly that T. Gotta fly it as many times as possible in Spring Training.
Kyle Hendricks was uncharacteristically wild in this one, both in and out of the zone. He plunked two batters, and gave up a crapload of hard contact in the zone. It was ugly. He had to be pulled from a live inning – to be finished by Tommy Nance – and then come back out in a fresh inning. Awful. … and yet, who cares? It’s the final Spring Training outing for a veteran who is starting Opening Day next week. He was just getting in his work. No one should be worried.
Oh, he did get hit by a comebacker at one point. But even after that, he was still out there pitching (and came back out for another inning after it happened), so there also isn’t a reason to be worried there.
If you were looking for a pitcher to be concerned about based solely on today’s performance, it would be Dan Winkler, who’d been solid all spring, but came into this one and went walk, hit by pitch, fly out, ground out, stolen base, hit by pitch, walk, pulled. Winkler has long been presumed to be making the bullpen to open the season, assuming he’s healthy. Not sure what was up today.
After two homers today – leading the Cactus League – Joc Pederson is up to a .366/.435/.951 line on the spring. Otherworldly stuff, but we’ll see what happens when the bell rings.
Pedro Strop went 1-2-3 in the 9th and once again looked quite good in the process:
Pedro Strop gets a strikeout with these two pitches to finish the AB pic.twitter.com/ea0R0mu1tn
— Cubs Insider (@realcubsinsider) March 26, 2021
Anthony Rizzo was mic’d up early in this one, having fun with Joc Pederson and Tommy La Stella. There was also this friendly exchange:
Rizzo asking for some support from La Stella the second time he reached base, and La Stella telling Riz that he worries about this stuff every spring, but then every year Rizzo puts up his numbers. So relax.
That was awesome.
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) March 26, 2021
