A Tip of the Recap March 31st

The Cubs came storming back today and scored 8 in the top of the 9th to defeat the Rangers by a score of 15-10

The Good

The Cubs pounded out 14 hits, drew 6 walks, and only struck out 7 times while scoring 15 runs as a team. Pretty impressive day.

Wes Darvill and Matt Szczur both went deep for the Cubs. For Szczur it was his 5th of the spring, which puts him 2nd on the team behind Kris Bryant.

Tommy La Stella reached base 2 more times today (one hit and one walk) and scored a run. He is now hitting .356 on the spring and looks like he may get the lion’s share of the playing time at 2nd base.

Willson Contreras had a big 2-run triple in the 9th to keep the rally moving forward.

Ten different Cubs drove in at least 1 run, with Soler, Szczur, Contreras, and Darvill driving in 2 each.

The Bad

Drake Britton came in to pitch the 6th inning immediately after the Cubs had just put up a 4-spot to bring the game to 7-5 and gave up 3 straight 2-out hits, which amounted to 2 more runs.

The Ugly

Eric Jokisch was not on his game again today; he couldn’t make it out of the 4th inning and in all gave up 7 runs (all earned) on 10 hits and 1 walk. His spring ERA is now 8.80 and while he may be in line for a spot start or two during the season, that is about the best he can hope for at this point.

On Deck

The Cubs will finish their Cactus League schedule tomorrow against the Brewers before heading to Chase Field for 2 exhibition games against the Diamondbacks. The game starts at 3:05 PM (CST) and will be televised on CSN.

Jason Hammel will get his final tune-up start tomorrow for the Cubs with Kyle Lohse going for the Brewers.