A Tip of the Recap March 14th

Here is a consolidated recap from today’s split squad games during which the Cubs extended their winning streak to 3 with a 3-1 victory of the A’s in Vegas and a 10-5 win over the Brewers.

The Good

I should rename this section The Best, because it doesn’t get much better than Kris Bryant going 2 for 3 with 2 HRs and 3 RBI to account for all of the Cubs offense in Vegas. He now has 6 HRs and 9 RBI on the spring while hitting .450.

Not to be outdone, Kyle Hendricks had an absolutely dominant start in Vegas against the A’s. He went 5 full innings and was perfect, no hits or walks and 3 Ks for day. He has now thrown 7 scoreless and walkless innings.

Also there were clean relief innings from Joe Ortiz, Jorge De Leon, Frank Batista and Drake Britton against the A’s, so there was good pitching all around in Vegas today.

Back in Arizona, Edwin Jackson had his first “good outing” of the spring. He went 3 innings and only gave up 1 hit, while walking 2 and striking out 2 in what should be considered an encouraging performance.

Arismendy Alcantara had a couple singles and a run scored with 0 Ks on the day, so this was a good step in the right direction for him.

Matt Szczur continues to rake, going 2 for 3 with his 3rd spring HR; he is now hitting .381 for the spring.

Beef is going to make it very hard to say goodbye at the end of spring training when he will most likely be traded. He went 2 for 4 with a double and 3 RBI. He is now hitting .412 and has 5 RBI.

Adron Chambers also had a multi-hit day going 2 for 4 with a double and 2 RBI.

The Bad

Javier Baez bunted for a single in Vegas, but then proceeded to get picked off of first. The bunt was obviously surprising, but the bad awareness on the bases was not. I appreciate his willingness to get on base at any cost though.

Armando Rivero made his first appearance of the spring and only could get out of 1/3 of an inning before he had to be replaced. He gave up 1 run on 2 hits and a walk in his short appearance.

The Ugly

It is hard to find much wrong on a day that saw the Cubs win both of the games, but I’m going to go with Gonzalez German. He gave up 3 runs (all earned) on 3 hits, and 2 walks in just 1/3 of an inning. He had been perfect up to this point, so some leeway is necessary, but this wasn’t a good outing.

On Deck

Travis Wood will get a chance to show he is the guy for the 5th spot in the rotation. He gets the start against the Reds and Johnny Cueto tomorrow in a game that will start at 3:05 PM (CST).