Wells Good, Wood Not

Wells pitched well

The Brewers came to Hohokam Stadium today and beat the Cubs 10-2 in front of 11,682 fans. Not alot to cheer about for the Cubs in today’s game, however Randy Wells was effective in his start, pitching 3 innings of shutout ball, giving up only 2 hits. Travis Wood trying to land a spot in the Cubs rotation had a difficult afternoon, following Wells in the 4th inning. He gave up 6 runs (5 earned) on 3 hits while walking 2 batters and beaning another. The Cubs showed some life in the bottom of the 4th, scoring 2 runs aided by back to back doubles from Starlin Castro and Ian Stewart. But that was all the scoring the Cubs could muster as they didn’t get another hit after the 5th inning.

A couple defensive notes- Uncharacteristically, Reed Johnson had what looked like a sure catch go off his glove. The ball appeared to sail on him a bit. First baseman Anthony Rizzo made a nice over the shoulder grab of a Ricky Week’s blooper to right in the 1st inning. As much as I hate to admit it, that Brewers Nyjer Morgan is some kinda fast, the dude can really cover ground in CF.

We had a pre-game ceremony honoring Cactus League icon Robert Brinton who passed away in October. This is the second such ceremony of the season; today it was presented by the Cubs. Cubs owner and Chairman Tom Ricketts facilitated the presentation, which included a $2,500 check for Play Ball, The Cactus League Experience (This museum exhibit was a pet project of Robert’s). A large framed photo was given to Robert’s wife, and a Brinton flag was raised in the outfield lawn area of Hohokam.

Anthony Rizzo gets a base hit in 3d inning

It was a day for PA announcers at Hohokam, as former Wrigley Field PA voice Wayne Messmer sang our National Anthem in his usual powerful style. If you were at the game you may have wondered why you heard a different voice than mine in the 3rd and 4th innings. This was Illinois State University PA announcer Steve Adams who was given special permission through the City of Mesa to announce a few innings. Steve recently retired as Vice President of Student Affairs at ISU but continues his PA duties. Typically during each spring game, we have a weather report where I announce the chilly temperatures in Chicago and compare it with our beautiful Mesa weather. Today it was 80 degrees in Chicago and 79 in Mesa, which drew some chuckles from the crowd. Apparently the Windy City is the new tropical hot-spot of the Midwest.

During the game a guy shouted from the stands, “Hey Sheridan!”  I looked at him, he was all dressed in Brewers garb, but before I threw my can of soda at him, I realized it was my cousin Dave from Wisconsin. I had no idea he was coming down to Arizona and I am not looking forward to the cheese eating Brewer loving ribbing I’ll get when I see him after today’s loss.

The Cubs play seven games in the next four days, including games in AZ and Las Vegas (split-squad) over the weekend. We have a nice slate of games this week at Hohokam with the DBacks/Cubs tomorrow, followed by the Giants/Cubs on Friday, capped off by a Sunday contest against the White Sox.

All today’s photos by BOS photographer John Antonoff.

The last Cubs hit of the day – Byrd’s single in 5th inning

Reed Johnson takes flight on ball hit to the gap

Reed Johnson’s single in the 4th inning