Monday, March 2, 2009

Chicago Cubs: Spring Training Is Here! How Long until Opening Day?

There are 38 days and six hours from the posting time of this article until Opening Day for the Cubs against the Houston Astros, and even longer before the Cubs play at Wrigley Field, as their first two series are on the road against the Astros and Milwaukee Brewers.

For now, we have only the first two Spring Training games to talk about, so let's take a look at what we have.

The Cubs were able to take the first Spring Training game against the Dodgers (wonder how that got scheduled) by the final of 5-3. However, pitcher Jeff Samardzija gave up two runs, both in his second and final inning of work.

There are 38 days and six hours from the posting time of this article until Opening Day for the Cubs against the Houston Astros, and even longer before the Cubs play at Wrigley Field, as their first two series are on the road against the Astros and Milwaukee Brewers.

For now, we have only the first two Spring Training games to talk about, so let's take a look at what we have.

The Cubs were able to take the first Spring Training game against the Dodgers (wonder how that got scheduled) by the final of 5-3. However, pitcher Jeff Samardzija gave up two runs, both in his second and final inning of work.

"Actually, I felt a little better in the second inning," Samardzija said. "It's funny how that works. You make some decent pitches and get out of an inning one, two, three, and then you make some good pitches and give up a couple runs."

Also in the game, Micah Hoffpauir hit a grand slam and Cubbie hopeful Mitch Atkins gave up one run and three hits over two innings.

In the Cubs second Spring Training game, they took down the Brew Crew 7-3 in Sean Marshall's first shot to prove that he can handle the fifth starting spot this season.

Marshall gave up one run on four hits in two innings, nothing stellar but not horrible either.

We also had our first Carlos Marmol showing. Marmol pitched one inning, allowing one run and one hit.

Jake Fox, another Cubbie hopeful, started at first base and hit a three-run home run.

Ted Lilly makes his first start today against the Rangers, as the Cubs look to continue their perfect spring (maybe not a good thing based on the Detroit Lions).

Although Spring Training is a nice warm up for the regular season, I look forward to watching the Cubs take on the Astros as the regular season starts in 38 days.



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1 comments:

CapStoneBPO said...

spring training so good