Game Recap: Cubs rout Royals to stay unbeaten

Daniel Kucin Jr. - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese - Senior Writer - 1 day ago

SURPRISE - The Chicago Cubs are never going to lose a Cactus League game. Just kidding, of course, but given the way things have gone through the first 11 games, it does have that feel. Looking to keep their winning ways going after picking up a 7-4 victory against the Guardians earlier in the day, the Cubs were back on the field Saturday night to take on the Kansas City Royals.

In a matchup that saw promising young arms Cole Ragens and Ben Brown make the start, the Cubs offense stole the show as they scored eight times in the first three innings to pick up the 11-1 victory. Four of those eight runs came in the first inning as the Cubs offense got rolling against Ragens and never looked back.

All it took was a Micahel Busch one-out double to get the offense rolling as he came around to score on the Pete Crow-Armstrong homer to put the Cubs in front 2-0. Had they not scored the rest of the way, that hit would go down as the game-winner, but the Cubs offense was just getting started, as was PCA.

Ben Cowles followed that homer up with a double before the two-out two-run blast from Moises Ballesteros gave the Cubs a comfortable 4-0 lead. That was all Brown needed as he was far from perfect, but he didn't need to be as he gave the Cubs just 2 1/3 innings of work. Brown was touched up a bit with four hits allowed, including a first-inning Bobby Witt Jr double as he scored on the Vinnie Pasquantino sacrifice fly to make this a 4-1 game in the first.

Not only was that the only run Brown allowed, but it was also the only run the Royals would score as the Cubs bullpen allowed just two hits the rest of the way, with both coming off Chris Flexen late in the game. That meant Eli Morgan, Porter Hodge, Trevor Richards, and Brandon Hughes worked hitless frames, which is hard to do in Spring.

Already with one massive inning under their belt, the Cubs offense continued to tee off on Ragens and used another four-run inning to put the game away in the third. Once again it was the Busch/PCA combo getting things started as Busch led the inning off with a triple and came into score on the PCA sacrifice fly. Another Cowles extra base followed that up with Nicky Lopez driving him home with a single to push the lead to 6-1.

The Cubs continued to make their presence felt with two outs as the Gage Workman single brought home the Cubs seventh run of the night while a bases-loaded hit by a pitch to James Triantos capped off the Cubs second four-run inning with the Cubs leading 8-1. Kansas City had a chance to battle back after picking up a pair of singles in the bottom of the third, but Morgan came in to relieve Brown and got Salvador Perez to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Chicago continued to go to work in the fifth as it was a pair of walks from Workman and Parker Chavers that had the Cubs in business yet again. That is when the Busch/PCA combo came through for an encore, with Busch picking up an RBI single to make things 9-1, while the PCA double capped off his four-RBI night with the Cubs leading 10-1 through five.

Not only was the Cubs offense humming along but once Brown was lifted from the game, the Cubs bullpen was as good as advertised as they retired 12 out of 14 hitters across the next four-plus innings, allowing just two walks as the base runners. The Cubs would close out the scoring in the sixth when Lopez led things off with a double before coming in to score on the Jose Escobar single to make this an 11-1 game.

Even with the offense doing very little the rest of the way, this game was well in hand as Flexon worked around a pair of late-game hits, including a ninth-inning triple off the bat of Omar Hernandez to close things out 11-1. With the win, the Cubs improve to 8-0-3 and are off to their best Cactus League start in franchise history.

Chicago also collected 13 hits in the win, with Busch leading the way with three hits and an RBI. Chicago also saw PCA, Cowles, and Lopez all notch multi-hit games, with Crow-Armstrong leading the way with four RBIs.