Chicago Cubs pitcher Marcus Stroman tosses gem in WBC

With the World Baseball Classic underway, Marcus Stroman was given the ball for Puerto Rico’s first pool play game against Nicaragua. Wasting no time, Stroman dominated with a line of 4.2 IP, two hits, 0 walks, and two strikeouts. The only run allowed came on the final pitch of his day, which left the yard. Due to pitch count limits in the opening round, he was pulled after that. For Stroman, it wasn’t the first time the Cubs frontline starter had seen success at the WBC, however.

As you may recall, Stroman also fired a gem against Puerto Rico to help clinch the World Baseball Classic championship for Team USA at the event back in 2017. Now, Stroman gets to live his dream of representing his mother and team Puerto Rico in the Classic. With a bit of extra adrenaline flowing through his veins, he managed to be the best version of himself, as he has had been to end the 2022 campaign, where he hurled five quality starts over his final six outings, recording a 2.19 ERA in the process. 

Stroman’s Spring Training 2023 began fantastically before he had to take off for the WBC festivities. Though he threw just 4.1 innings, he only allowed one run while striking over five over his two appearances to the tune of a 2.08 ERA. It will be interesting to see how far Puerto can go with Pool B being pretty stacked in the event. Their biggest competition comes in the form of the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. 

In any case, you’d love to see Stroman get as many starts in real competitive games as possible and be fully stretched out for the Cubs' home opener on March 30th. You can tune into the action for the World Baseball Classic on Fox, Fox Deportes, FS1, FS2, and Tubi has live streams on their app if you haven’t had a chance. You can check out the complete list of Cubs players participating in the event here.