Cubs offense goes quiet in loss to Athletics |
MESA - Anytime you get this late into Spring Training, managers will start changing things up in an effort to make sure everyone is ready to go on opening day. Wednesday was one of those games for Craig Counsell as he elected to go with an all-bullpen game against the Oakland Athletics that saw the Cubs use eight different pitchers.
For the most part, all eight pitchers pitched well, which bodes well for how things will shake out once the regular season starts. They walked one and struck out 13, which is what you want to see. The problem was Hector Neris, who continued to endure a rough Spring in his first season with the Cubs. Neris has been known to struggle at times, and although he recorded three strikeouts in his inning of work, he was charged with all three earned runs in the Cubs' 3-1 loss. The three runs he allowed may not seem like a lot, but when Paul Blackburn tossed six shutout innings, it was more than enough as the Cubs were searching for answers all day. To make matters worse for Chicago, Blackburn no-hit the Cubs across those six innings, which is hard to do in Spring as the Cubs managed just one hit in the ball game on the Ezequiel Pagan homer in the seventh. It doesn't matter how good your pitching is; if you only have one hit, it will be hard to win games, and the Cubs found that out today. Right from the start, you could tell this was going to be a pitcher's duel, as Mark Leiter Jr. and Blackburn came out strong to make things look easy. Had it not been for the two-out Lawrence Butler double off of Adbert Alzolay in the second, neither team would've had a hit through three, as both offenses got off to a slow start. It took three innings for anyone to get on the board, but once that happened for Oakland, it was a quick onslaught that saw the Cubs in a three-run hole. It's no secret that Neris has struggled this Spring, but ironically, he hasn't struggled as much as you would think. Sure, the ERA is high, which you never want to see, but to make things worse, it has been the long ball that has been a problem this season. That continued in this one as Nick Allen belted a solo homer to end the shutout and put the A's in front 1-0. His homer was followed by a Ryan Noda single, but after consecutive strikeouts, Neris was on the verge of getting out of the inning with limited damage. Unfortunately, the long ball got him again, with Brent Rooker getting into his third homer of the Spring to extend the A's lead to 3-0. Those would be the last of the runs for Oakland, but with the Cubs mustering just one hit and two total baserunners, it would be more than enough. Over the next three innings, the pitching continued to dominate. Blackburn continued to keep the Cubs off the board while Julian Merryweather, Jose Cuas, and Carl Edwards Jr. allowed three baserunners, one of which came on a hit. Looking for their first hit in the seventh, the Cubs were happy to see Blackburn out of the game and hoped their luck would change against former Cub Sean Newcomb. Things didn't look much better to start off the seventh, as Newcomb came in and retired the first two hitters he faced, but the Cubs still couldn't score a hit. Leave it to Pagan to change that, as he not only delivered the Cubs' long hit but also took it over the right-center field fence to put the Cubs on the board 3-1. That was the first homer of the Spring for Pagan, as the Cubs continue to build on their Cactus League in homers. The Cubs had a chance to add some more runs in the seventh with Garrett Cooper reaching an error, but as was the case most of the game, nothing would come from it as the A's retired the final seven hitters they faced to end the game with a 3-1 victory. This is one of those games where you just wash it clean and start fresh on Thursday, as the Cubs are down to their final six games of the Spring.
