Spring Training: Cubs vs Athletics

Many of you may have already jumped at the chance to finally catch some Cubs baseball action in 2011 by tuning into WGN 720 for the Spring Training opener today.

While the final score of A’s 15 Cubs 7 is not pretty to look at now matter how you cut it, it is just the first game of Spring Training folks. On to the game notes.

PITCHING

Manager Mike Quade put a squash on the Opening Day starter competition last week by selecting Ryan Dempster. Maybe Quade trotted out Carlos Zambrano for the Spring Training opener as a bit of a consolation prize for the emotional right hander?

Regardless, Zambrano’s quest to translate his September 2010 dominance into a full season for 2011 got off to a great start. Big Z promptly struck out the first two batters he faced. He did issue the always hated lead off walk in the 2nd inning, but he promptly got Andy LaRoche of the A’s to ground into a double play. The other two outs he recorded in his appearance were also ground ball outs, so Zambrano kicked off the 2011 Spring campaign in excellent form.

Hopefully new acquisition Matt Garza was a little too eager to make his Cubs debut. Garza was not himself as he struggled with his control. He allowed back to back singles and then a walk before serving up a grand slam to Coco Crisp. Garza ended up being responsible for five out of the 15 Oakland runs in his two innings of work, but again, it is Spring Training and it is early. As a control pitcher, Garza will just need to continue to get his innings in to get back in the groove. He will be fine.

The Athletics made the score line ugly in the 7th inning by tagging bullpen hopeful Justin Berg for seven runs. Unfortunately for Berg, his defense did not help pick him up either. More on that below.

DEFENSE

The Cubs committed three errors in the field, and unfortunately two of those were by Tyler Colvin in RF. To add insult to injury, they both occurred in the 7th inning to help Oakland bat around in the order while dropping seven runs on the Cubs. Hopefully the efforts to see if Colvin can play first base are not adding to an already full plate for the young right fielder as he works to build upon his good rookie season in 2010.

OFFENSE

A lot of the talk in recent days on Cubbies Crib has revolved around the line up and the lead off spot. Jordan passed along Quade’s decision to give Kosuke Fukudome the first spin at the top. The Japanese import promptly led off the 1st inning with a walk and would later come in to score in a four run inning for the Cubs. The expected top half of the order in Starlin Castro, Marlon Byrd, and Aramis Ramirez provided back to back to back singles, and Alfonso Soriano provided a double in that first frame. In fact, Soriano went 3 for 3 in the opener with 2 RBIs.