Bote's blast pushes Cubs past Giants |
MESA - Chicago Cubs baseball is on the air. Man, that feels so good to say, even if Saturday was just the opening of Spring Training. In front of a record crowd which has become the norm at Sloan Park, the Chicago Cubs took on the San Francisco Giants to open up Catus League play.
You saw the projected opening-day starter Marcus Stroman take the ball and allow one run in two innings. You saw what could be the opening day lineup once camp breaks. You also had some familiar faces, including David Bote, come through as his three-run homer was the winner in the Cubs 10-8 win. Stroman wasn't perfect, allowing a Stephen Piscotty RBI single in the first to put the Cubs in an early hole, but apart from that, he did what he needed to do on the mound. The biggest concern in this one was the outing by Adrian Sampson. Listed as one of the three guys battling it out for the rotation's final spot, Sampson struggled as he allowed four earned runs in 1 2/3 innings of work. You also saw Blake Whitney, Ronier Elias, Mark Leiter Jr, Vinny Nittoli, and Eric Stout all see time on the mound. Offensively, the Cubs were sound, as this has to be the part of the team that improves the most this season. Nico Hoerner had a great day at the plate with two hits, but the Cubs offense went scoreless in the first before Yan Gomes tied things up in the second on a double play. With Sampson on the mound to pitch the third, Lamonte Wade Jr got into it and hit it over the fence for the 2-1 Giants lead. The Cubs answered in the bottom of the third, with Hoerner singling to start things off and then coming around to score on the two-out RBI single from Trey Mancini. It was in the fourth inning when things began to go south, and sadly it happened with two outs. After serving up a leadoff walk to Piscotty, Sampson retired the next two hitters and was on the verge of pitching out of it. That was until back-to-back homers from Blake Sabol, and Casey Schmidtt put the Giants in front 5-2 and had the Cubs searching for answers. The Cubs wasted a golden opportunity in the fourth to get back in the game, but come the fifth inning, those answers were found as the young guys started to make some noise. A leadoff walk by Pete Crow-Armstrong got things going before Matt Mervis earned a walk of his own. Throw in a wild pitch, and both runners were in scoring position before coming home to score on the Jared Young RBI single to pull within 5-4. Following a Dom Nunez walk, Yonathan Perlaza tied things up with an RBI single before a costly wild pitch put the Cubs back in front 6-5. Two batters later saw Bote deliver the big blow of the day for the Cubs as his three-run shot not only created some distance at 9-5, but proved to be the winning run in the process. David Bote - Chicago Cubs (1)* pic.twitter.com/DlAoPqp4T9 After coming on in relief of Sampson, Elias was off to a great start until back-to-back doubles in the sixth pushed home another run for the Giants, with Sabol adding his third RBI of the day. The Giants would add another run later in that frame off a wild pitch, but Elias did an excellent job recovering and got out of the inning with the lead still intact. Led by a pair of walks and a fielding error, the Cubs had the bases loaded in the sixth, but a Christopher Morel strikeout ended the threat. Morel had a rough go in his first spring game as he went 0-3 with three strikeouts. With Leiter Jr and Nittoli tossing a pair of scoreless frames to keep the Cubs in front, it was time for the offense to try and add to their lead in the eighth. A leadoff walk by Nunez certainly helps, but so does the single from Darius Hill, as the Cubs had a pair of runners on base. With the bases loaded following an Andy Weber hit by pitch, the Cubs pushed across their tenth run of the game with Morel working the bases-loaded walk. San Francisco did manage to pick up a run in the ninth on the Shane Matheny homer, but Stout kept things right there as the Cubs opened their spring campaign with the 10-8 win. Hoerner and Mancini led the way with two hits as the Cubs connected for 12 hits in the game. Bote had three RBIs.
