A Tip of the Recap March 24th

The Cubs were back in action Tuesday and lost by a score of 14-2 to the Oakland A’s.

The Good

Dexter Fowler reached base all 3 times today (1 hit and 2 walks) and also stole a base. It is going to be exciting to see this team with a leadoff guy with legit on-base skills.

Kris Bryant went deep again (his 9th), ho hum, just another day at the ballpark. He had an error today on the exchange from his glove to his throwing hand, but he did handle some other chances cleanly in the game.

Jorge Soler had an RBI single and a walk and has now hit safely in 11 of his 12 games this spring. He has a .361 average with 6 RBI, while playing a mostly steady RF.

Javier Baez didn’t do anything of note at the plate, but did add a walk and struck out once, though it was looking on the inside corner and by the sound of it could have gone either way. It sounds like Wittenmyer has heard that he will make the team also, so that is an interesting development.

The Bad

Blake Parker got the start due to E-Jax being stuck in traffic and did not do very well. In his inning of work he gave up 2 runs (both earned) on 3 hits (1 HR).

Today was just a bad day for pitchers overall for the Cubs. The staff as a whole gave up 14 runs (13 earned) on 18 hits (2 HRs) and 3 walks.

The Ugly

Perhaps ugly isn’t a strong enough word for Edwin Jackson’s performance today. First of all, there was the aforementioned traffic issue, which apparently is a common thing in heading to Hohokam. Either way, he may as well have stayed stuck in the car for all the good he did on the mound.

Jackson only made it through 1.2 innings and gave up 8 runs (all earned) on 9 hits (1 HR), but at least he didn’t walk anyone. It will be interesting to see where this takes him in the race for the 5th spot (probably should eliminate him from contention) because Travis Wood hasn’t really run away with the job (though he has fared much better than this).

Joe Maddon did cryptically allude to having a plan in place for both Jackson and Wood, so it is unclear if this performance changes that plan.

On Deck

The Cubs are back in action tomorrow and will be on TV when they go up against the Seattle Mariners at 9:05 PM (CST) on CSN. Travis Wood will look to outdo Jackson’s performance from today when he gets the start.