I didn’t go to this game but I kind of wish I had just because of all the weird things that happened in the Cubs’ 4-2 loss to the Giants Sunday afternoon in Scottsdale.
First, as the Cubs were batting in the top of the first inning, a loud beeping sound (like a truck backing up) came over the PA system along with an announcement that some sort of incident had happened at Scottsdale Stadium and fans should leave [VIDEO].
Some did, some didn’t (I talked to some friends who were there and they stayed put). Meanwhile, Giants pitcher Robbie Ray got a bit distracted and walked Matt Shaw and Alex Bregman. Really, they probably should have stopped play until they could get the announcement, which turned out to be some sort of glitch, turned off.
Anyway, the Cubs had runners on first and second with nobody out.
Seiya Suzuki blooped a single to right. He apparently thought Shaw was going to score, so he took off for second and Bregman went toward third. But Shaw had held up between third and home thinking the ball might be caught. Suzuki was thrown out easily at second, and Shaw had returned to third… but Bregman met him there.
When two runners are on a base like that, the defending team tags both of them because one of them is going to be out. The other runner — in this case Shaw, the lead runner — is entitled to the base. Shaw should have stayed on third, but instead wandered off and was tagged out, completing a single plus 9-3-6-5 triple play. You can see Shaw talking with third-base coach Quintin Berry and I’m not sure what Berry said to him, if anything, but what has to be said is, “Stay on the base!”
Fortunately, this is Spring Training and that’s a good learning experience for Shaw. Pretty sure Bregman will lead a meeting about situations like this.
Colin Rea started for the Cubs and had a solid first inning, once the rogue announcement had been turned off, and then got touched up for a run in the second on a pair of singles sandwiched around a walk. It was a decent outing for Rea, 37 pitches (22 strikes).
Caleb Thielbar threw an efficient third inning and then left-handed prospect Riley Martin held the Giants scoreless in the fourth. In the fifth, the Giants loaded the bases off Martin on two singles and a walk and then scored twice on infield outs to make it 3-0.
The Cubs had a chance to score in the sixth, two chances, in fact, when Brett Bateman led off with a single and Miguel Amaya hit a fly ball that was lost in the sun in center. Amaya wound up on second, but Bateman was thrown out trying to score. After pinch-runner Kane Kepley stole third, Chas McCormick hit a fly to right that Jung Hoo Lee turned into an inning-ending double play [VIDEO].
Lee is moving to right field for the Giants this year because they signed Harrison Bader to play center. That’s a good defensive move for them; Lee has a great arm.
The Cubs scored a pair in the seventh. Dylan Carlson led off with a walk and was replaced by pinch-runner Kade Snell. Justin Dean singled, then the runners advanced on a fly ball. Snell then scored on a wild pitch with Dean taking third, where he scored on a fielding error.
Here is one ABS challenge that shows the perfect situation to use one [VIDEO].
There are two out with nobody on in the second. The strike three call would have ended the inning. Carlson challenged, got it overturned, the inning continued and he wound up with a single. Now, in a regular season game you probably wouldn’t do such a challenge in a scoreless game in the second inning, but in early spring games the early innings is when MLB players are in situations they might encounter during a game and I suspect they are being encouraged to try out the system. Overall there were seven challenges in this game, with four overturned. Based on what I learned at the ABS presentation I attended earlier this month, this is about what we should expect — somewhere around half of challenges overturned.
The Cubs certainly had their chances to score in this game, with nine hits and 10 (!) walks. But they went 1-for-11 with RISP and left 12 runners on base.
I am a bit surprised we have yet to see Michael Busch, Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner or Dansby Swanson in any of the three spring games. I doubt most or all of them will want the long bus ride to Surprise tomorrow, but perhaps we will see them Tuesday and/or Wednesday at Sloan Park.
As noted above, the Cubs will head to the west Valley on Monday to face the Royals at Surprise. Ben Brown will start for the Cubs and Seth Lugo will go for Kansas City. Game time is again 2:05 p.m. CT. No TV Monday, but there will be a radio broadcast via ALT 96.5, the Royals radio station.