Wesneski stays hot as Cubs top Dodgers |
Despite the Cubs nine-game winning streak ending on Friday, it only took one day for the Cubs to return to their winning ways. With Hayden Wesneski taking the ball for the third time this spring, the right-hander continued to make his case for the fifth starter spot and may have solidified the job with his outing on Saturday.
Not only did Wesneski toss four shutout innings, but he tossed four perfect innings with four punchouts. He has yet to allow a run in just under 10 innings of work as the Cubs took down the Dodgers 5-2. While Wesneski was doing his thing on the mound, the Dodgers countered with Thor, Noah Syndergaard, who is looking for a bounce-back campaign. Hayden Wesneski, K'ing the Side...on all Swords. ⚔️⚔️⚔️ pic.twitter.com/WvRAhZ7YM6
Syndergaard was nearly as good as Wesneski, as he allowed one run in 4 1/3 innings with four punchouts. His ERA is 0.96 for the spring, as he allowed his first earned run in three outings. Not only was the offense limited through four innings, but so were the baserunners, as Patrick Wisdom and Dansby Swanson were the only baserunners through four innings. Then came the fifth when the Cubs offense finally started to break through and started to attack the Dodgers staff with an aggressive nature at the plate. Yan Gomes broke a scoreless tie with a leadoff homer to begin the fifth as the Cubs took the lead for good, 1-0. Two batters later and the long ball continued to be a thing, with Mike Tauchman going deep for his first spring homer and extending the lead 2-0. Christopher Morel kept things rolling as he followed that Tauchman homer with his second homer in three games as the Cubs offense was off and running 3-0. With Wesneski leaving the game in the fifth, Anthony Kay took over, and the Dodgers couldn't have been happier. Kay was solid for the most part, but did allow a leadoff homer to James Outman that made things 3-1. Kay responded by retiring the next three hitters as the Cubs remained in front. Looking to keep things rolling in the sixth, the Cubs had one out in the inning before Trey Mancini kept the inning alive with a walk. Sparked by an error that allowed Edwin Rios to reach first and sent Mancini to third, Gomes brought home his second runner of the game via a sacrifice fly as the Cubs got that run back to extend the lead to 4-1. Across the next two innings, Michael Rucker and Brendon Little continued their strong work in relief as the Dodgers were held to just one run through seven innings. Then came the eighth when Little started the eighth with a pair of strikeouts before Hamlet Marte picked up a double to keep the inning alive. The next batter was Hunter Feduccia, whose RBI single brought home the Dodgers second run of the game, which happened to be their final run. While two runs seemed like enough, given how the Cubs pitching has been, you know they wanted a bit more offense to make things more challenging for the Dodgers. Jake Slaughter provided the thunder in the top of the ninth with his first spring homer as the Cubs grabbed the 5-2 lead. After a pair of strikeouts had the Cubs on the verge of ending the inning with just one run, Zach Davis extended the inning with another single before the David Bote punchout ended the offensive threat for the Cubs. Down to their final three outs, the Dodgers had the challenging task of trying to solve Cam Sanders, who struck out the first two hitters he faced. Sanders would retire the Dodgers next hitter to pick up the save as the Cubs won their 10th game in 11 tries 5-2. Seven players had a hit for the Cubs, but it was Gomes leading the way with two RBIs. As a staff, the Cubs allowed two runs on four hits, but struck out 12 hitters. They also didn't walk a hitter, which is an impressive feat, to say the least, for a spring training game.
