The Cubs’ unbeaten streak came to an end.
MESA, Arizona — You didn’t really think the Cubs would stay undefeated all Spring Training, did you?
Oh, come now, you know that’s pretty much impossible.
They did manage to not lose through their first 11 spring games, a pretty good feat, before dropping Sunday’s contest to the Reds at Sloan Park, 7-3.
Just a few things to note from this one.
Matthew Boyd started and despite allowing three runs in fewer than three innings, I thought he looked pretty good. There were a couple of balls hit hard that got past Greg Allen in left field, while Ian Happ played center (more on this later). If not for those, maybe Boyd gets out of this outing in better shape.
Matt Shaw made his first spring appearance. He went 0-for-3 and handled exactly one chance at third base, a foul popup from the first batter of the game, TJ Friedl.
Here’s Shaw talking about his spring debut [VIDEO].
I hope Shaw can get enough time in over the next 10 days so that he’ll be ready to be the starting third baseman in Tokyo against the Dodgers.
The Cubs did try to come back. They scored a run in the second and two in the fourth to make it 5-3, after Keegan Thompson gave up a couple of home runs that were not windblown. At this point I’d have to say Thompson’s a longshot for the pen. He’s out of options, so maybe the Cubs can trade him somewhere.
In that fourth inning, after Happ drew a bases-loaded walk for the Cubs’ third run, the bases remained loaded but Shaw popped up to end the inning.
That was it for Cubs offense in this game, and among the MLB relievers who threw, Ryan Pressly had an efficient 1-2-3 inning and Jack Neely struck out the side, despite allowing a hit on a pop fly to left that should have been caught. Ethan Roberts allowed a run in the sixth and minor leaguer Frankie Scalzo Jr. another in the ninth to complete the scoring.
This is what passes for a Cubs offensive highlight, a run scoring in the second on a Travis Jankowski ground out [VIDEO].
So what I’d like to talk about for the rest of this recap is Happ playing center field. It wasn’t that way on today’s original lineup:
So sometime after that came out, Craig Counsell switched Happ to center and Allen to left. Saturday, Counsell had Seiya Suzuki playing center field, which… Suzuki’s not really even a great right fielder, and that was the first time he’d played center field since he came to MLB.
Sure, Spring Training is the time for experimenting, but I don’t think playing Suzuki in center, or putting your Gold Glove left fielder there, a position Happ hasn’t played since 2022 (and only three games there that year), is a good idea, especially when the Cubs have a potential Gold Glover in center field in Pete Crow-Armstrong.
Now, I understand why PCA didn’t play Sunday afternoon, since he was in the night game Saturday. But I hope this isn’t trending toward some sort of platoon arrangement for PCA. He’s clearly good enough to be a MLB regular, and for that, he needs to face left-handed pitching, too.
Counsell is an experienced manager and you’d think he knows what he’s doing, but… I’m not in favor of such an arrangement.
Attendance watch: 13,660 paid for Sunday’s game on yet another gorgeous spring afternoon in Mesa. That makes the season total for seven dates 87,001, or 12,429 per date.
The Cubs head to Salt River Fields in Scottsdale to face the Diamondbacks Monday afternoon. Corbin Burnes, newly signed by the D-backs, gets the start for Arizona. He’ll face Cubs righthander Caleb Kilian. Game time Monday is 2:10 p.m. CT. No TV Monday, but there will be a radio broadcast via 670 The Score.