W and L’s don’t matter, it’s spring

Not a very exciting game today from the Cubs standpoint as the Cleveland Indians shutdown the North Siders 9-2 in front of 12,327 fans at Hohokam.

The 2 Cubs runs came in the final inning courtesy of a Cleveland error and a Micah Hoffpauir 2 run single. The Cubs bats were silent most of the game except for a single and double by Alfonso Soriano – The only 2 hits for the Cubs in the first 7 innings. Fausto Carmona pitched 6 outstanding innings for Cleveland to start the game, leaving the game with his team up 5-0.

The Cubs play in the field was also less than scintillating with Derrek Lee trying to throw out Austin Kearns at third base instead of taking an easy out at first and Bobby Scales with an errant throw on what could have been a double play ball. Jeff Baker had an error on a hard but fairly routine grounder in the 5th that ended up helping the Indians score 2 runs. Baker did make a nice leaping snatch on a hard Mark Grudzielanek liner in the 3d inning.

Jeff Samardzija had a chance to show what he could do as today’s Cubs starter and had mixed results in his 4 innings. Samardzija allowed 2 runs on 4 hits with 2 BB’s and 4 K’s, not a bad outing but probably not enough get him out of the pen or Iowa at this point. John Grabow would have pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 5th if not for a Cubs error and gave up 2 unearned runs allowing 3 hits in 2/3 of an inning. Mike Parisi probably did enough to conclude his time with the Cubs as he failed to retire an Indian batter in the 8th inning and was on the hook for 4 runs while walking 2 and hitting another. Justin Berg came in and cleaned up what he could of Parisi’s mess and Jake Muyco pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning against Indians minor leaguers.

All in all not an inspired performance by the Cubs but it’s spring so we shouldn’t read to much into this game. It was warm and sunny here in Mesa today and I got to watch baseball in March…From my standpoint that’s a great day, no matter the score.