A Tip of the Recap March 13th (Late Game)

The Cubs got back in the win column this evening with a 5-3 victory over the Oakland A’s.

The Good

Tommy La Stella had himself a ball game, going 3 for 3 with a run scored. All 3 hits were singles, but he raised his spring average to .286.

Addison Russell continues to impress this spring walking twice and ripping an RBI double (his 3rd) into the left field corner. He scored two runs and is now hitting .462.

Dexter Fowler had a two-hit day including an RBI double and is hitting .286 so far.

Junior Lake has looked like a different player; he is walking more and making all around good contact. He smashed an RBI single back up the middle and is at .308 for the spring. He can play a few positions as well and could be a decent utility guy off the bench for either the Cubs or some other team. He definitely is outplaying Arismendy Alcantara up to this point.

Great pitching performances from the Cubs today; Jake Arrieta got the start and threw 4 innings, giving up an unearned run on 4 hits while striking out 3 with zero walks.

Eric Jokisch was even more impressive, coming in and throwing 3 hitless innings with 1 walk and 3 Ks. Jokisch really struggled his first time out, giving up 4 runs on 6 hits in 2 innings, so this was a welcome sight. And since no one else is really taking the 5th starter’s job and running away with it, this performance may get him into the conversation (I do think it will more than likely be Travis Wood, but you never know).

The Bad

There wasn’t much to complain about this evening for the Cubs. But to pick something for this section, I’m going with Donn Roach, who didn’t have a great outing and gave up 2 earned runs on 3 hits without any walks, though he did strike out 3.

The Ugly

Hard to pick out something too ugly after a game like tonight, but I will point out the Cubs struck out 11 times as a team (almost 33% of the time). Other than that though there isn’t much that was ugly from tonight’s game.

On Deck

The Cubs are back in action tomorrow with split squad action against the A’s in Vegas at 2:05 PM CST and the Brewers at 3:05 PM CST. Kyle Hendricks will get the start against the A’s and Edwin Jackson will get another turn against the Brewers.