Game Recap: Padres top Cubs |
Dustin Riese
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- 12 hours ago
MESA - Now that the Japan tour has concluded, the Chicago Cubs can get back to work as they returned home to Mesa, Arizona to resume Cactus League play. With less than a week to go until the start of the regular season, the Cubs are hoping to forget what happened overseas and get back to prepping for their season ahead.
One of the positives is that the Cubs can get very comfortable at home as their final five games of Spring will be played at Sloan Park. That included Firday's matchup with the San Diego Padres as the Cubs were looking to bounce back after a rough showing in Japan. As expected, most of the regulars were out of the lineup and could remain out until next week as they are still recovering from the long flight back to the States. That gave several players who haven't seen much time over the past week a chance to shine, as the next few days will be crucial for their season ahead. In the end, it was another quiet offensive day for the Cubs, as they managed just one run off a Moises Ballesteros homer and fell to the Padres 5-1. That was the negative in this one, but one of the positives was seeing Cade Horton make another start as he is gearing up for AAA. Horton wasn't as sharp in this outing as he was in his previous outing, walking two and striking out one, but he only allowed one hit in two scoreless frames. He gave way to Brad Keller, among others, including Luke Little, who made his spring debut with an impressive 1 2/3 scoreless outing. Opposing Horton was one of the Padres better pitchers, Michael King, who was making his final tuneup of the Spring. Needless to say, it was a positive tuneup as King handcuffed the Cubs for one hit across five scoreless frames, walking none and striking out four. Even with the Padres putting men on base in each of the first three innings, it took four innings for the first run to cross home as Elias Diaz delivered a one-out single to reach base. The Padres were in danger of coming away empty again, only to have a wild pitch move Diaz to third before coming home on the Tyler Wade single to put the Padres in front 1-0. They would never look back, as this was one of the rare cases this Spring where the Cubs trailed from start to finish. Still holding their 1-0 lead in the sixth, it was Wade coming through again as he took Trevor Richards deep for the two-run shot to extend the Padres lead to 3-0. Considering the Cubs only scored one run in the game, his homer went down as the game-winning hit in an overall solid outing for Wade. The Padres continued to make the Cubs pay in the top of the seventh, with Mason McCoy leading things off with a double and then advancing to third off a balk. That balk proved especially costly as Brett Sullivan delivered a sacrifice fly to push the Padres lead to 4-0. Francisco Acuna capped off what was a solid offensive day for the Padres as closed out the scoring for San Diego with an eighth-inning solo shot off Brandon Hughes to make this a 5-0 game. It took the Cubs eight innings to crack the scoreboard, but it's better late than never as the Cubs managed to, at the very least, put an end to the shutout. After taking over for King in the sixth, Randy Vasquez pitched the final four innings, striking out four and allowing one run on two hits. That run came off the Ballesteros solo shot in the bottom of the eighth as the Cubs pulled within 5-1. That was as close as they would get as Haydn McGeary opened the bottom of the ninth with a leadoff double, only to see Vasquez retire the final three hitters to secure the 5-1 win. Chicago will be back at Sloan Park on Saturday to host the Colorado Rockies.
