Spring Training Game Ten – Cubs (ss) 4, Indians (ss) 7
WP – T.J. House (1-0) LP – Justin Grimm (0-1) Save – None
Tsuyoshi Wada left the game with two outs in the first inning with left groin tightness and the bullpen could not keep the Indians from circling the bases as the Cubs dropped another Spring Training game on Friday afternoon at Sloan Park.
Any chance Tsuyoshi Wada had of making the big league roster out of Spring Training came to an end Friday. Wada has been slowed early in camp with hamstring and groin issues and left the game in the middle of the at bat against Jesus Aguilar, the fourth batter of the game. Wada retired the first two batters he faced on broken bat grounders to Mike Olt at third. But after serving up a solo blast to Yan Gomes, Wada reinjured his groin and left the game.
Joe Maddon had minor leaguer Zach Cates finish the first inning, but the injury to Wada impacted the Cubs pitching plans for the afternoon.
Justin Grimm pitched a scoreless second and stayed in for the third inning. Grimm gave up a one-out single to Mike Aviles and walked Yan Gomes. Grimm struck out Aguilar before turning the game over to Jeffrey Lorick with two on and two-out in the third. And the Indians quickly put the exhibition game out of reach.
Lorick was greeted by a Jerry Sands RBI single and a Clint Frazier three-run homer. And before the minor leaguer had a chance to settle in, Cleveland had a 5-1 lead.
The final lines on what ended up being a full bullpen day were not good.
Justin Grimm was charged with two runs on two hits with a walk and three strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings. Jason Motte was touched up for a run on two hits in his inning of work. Hunter Cervenka threw two scoreless innings with three strikeouts before Neil Ramirez was charged with one run on two hits with a walk and a strikeout in the seventh. The Cubs defense did not help Ramirez, a tailor made inning ending double play ball was bobbled and Ramirez was not able to wiggle out of the inning.
Phil Coke made his second appearance with the Cubs and tossed a 1-2-3 eighth inning.
The Cubs offense was a no show Friday afternoon. Matt Szczur (1-for-3 with a home run) tied the game at one in the bottom of the first with a solo home run. The Cubs managed only one other hit through the first six innings, a Chris Coghlan (1-for-2) single in the fifth.
The Cubs scored in the eighth inning on a Danny Lockhart (1-for-1 with a RBI) single that plated John Andreoli (1-for-2 with a run scored). And once again, the team rallied in the ninth but came up short.
Gleyber Torres (1-for-1 with a double, a RBI and a run scored) doubled in Adron Chambers (1-for-2 with a run scored) and Rafael Lopez (1-for-2 with a RBI) singled in Torres.
After scoring one run on two hits with no walks and seven strikeouts in the first six innings, the Cubs scored four runs on eight hits with one walk and 11 strikeouts for the game.
The Cubs play two again on Saturday. Edwin Jackson gets the ball for the Cubs in Maryvale against the Brewers (3:05pm CDT) and Kyle Hendricks faces Jesse Hahn and the Athletics in Las Vegas (2:05pm CDT).