{"id":642004,"date":"2026-03-09T00:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/642004\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T00:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T00:04:11","slug":"giants-9-cubs-5-a-tale-of-two-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/642004\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants 9, Cubs 5: A tale of two games"},"content":{"rendered":"

MESA, Arizona<\/strong> \u2014 The Cubs who played in this game who will actually be on the Opening Day roster did very well. They got five runs out of (most) of the starting lineup and three relievers who will be in the Opening Day bullpen threw scoreless innings (and so did Luke Little, which is a good sign).<\/p>\n

Then things went off the rails with guys who aren\u2019t going to sniff Wrigley Field this year. The Cubs lost to the Giants 9-5, but the result is meaningless. Let\u2019s talk about the good stuff, which includes some more ABS challenges won by Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros.<\/p>\n

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The Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the first. Nico Hoerner doubled with one out, and one out later, after a Dansby Swanson walk, Michael Conforto singled Nico in [VIDEO]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cubs got another run in the fourth. Dansby Swanson led off with a triple and one out later, scored on a ground out by Ballesteros.<\/p>\n

Three Cubs runs crossed the plate in the fifth. Michael Busch led off with a single and advanced to second on a walk by Hoerner.<\/p>\n

Swanson\u2019s double scored Busch [VIDEO].<\/a><\/p>\n

Hoerner took third on the double and he and Swanson both scored on this single by Ballesteros [VIDEO]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Dansby on his two-hit afternoon [VIDEO].<\/a><\/p>\n

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As I noted in the game preview, this was a bullpen day. Caleb Thielbar, Phil Maton and Hoby Milner combined for three no-hit innings. The only baserunner was Luis Matos, who was hit by a Maton pitch leading off the second. So that\u2019s all good. So was Luke Little\u2019s scoreless inning. He allowed a leadoff walk to Jesus Rodriguez, but then picked him off and retired the next two hitters.<\/p>\n

The Giants teed off for 13 hits and nine runs off Corbin Martin, Connor Schultz, Vince Reilly and Brooks Caple, and you will not likely hear those names as MLB Cubs after March 24.<\/p>\n

The other thing I wanted to mention was more successful ABS challenges by Ballesteros. Here\u2019s one [VIDEO].<\/a><\/p>\n

There were also two by Busch \u2014 in the same at-bat! Here\u2019s the first [VIDEO].<\/a><\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s the second \u2014 0n the very next pitch! [VIDEO]<\/a><\/p>\n

Busch wound up with a single in that at-bat and later scored. I like that the guys are taking advantage of challenge situations to try them. It\u2019s good practice, in my view, for using them during the season, what situations are best to use them, etc.<\/p>\n

Attendance watch:<\/strong> A near-sellout of 15,033 saw this game on a very warm (86 at game time) afternoon. That makes the season total 120,808 for 10 games, or 12,081 per date.<\/p>\n

The Cubs are off Monday, one of two scheduled off days this spring. They will resume the spring schedule Tuesday afternoon in Surprise against the Rangers. Cade Horton will go for the Cubs. At the posting time of this recap, the Rangers did not have a starter listed. No TV or radio Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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Monday, there will be six WBC games, three in the afternoon and three in the evening. The evening games include the USA vs. Mexico. I will post two game threads Monday, one for the afternoon games at 10:30 a.m. CT (first games are at 11 a.m. CT) and another for the night games at 5 p.m. CT (the first night games are at 6 p.m. CT). Stick around, there will be plenty to discuss here Monday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MESA, Arizona \u2014 The Cubs who played in this game who will actually be on the Opening Day…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":642005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[273188,5437,68503,273190,20167,16075,117312,102019,99010,273189,5606,27349,1266,67238,13715,69659,62,109499,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-642004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ballesteros","tag-cade-horton","tag-caleb-thielbar","tag-corbin-martin","tag-cubs","tag-dansby-swanson","tag-hoby-milner","tag-jesus-rodriguez","tag-luis-matos","tag-luke-little","tag-michael-busch","tag-michael-conforto","tag-mlb","tag-moises-ballesteros","tag-nico-hoerner","tag-phil-maton","tag-sports","tag-the-cubs","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116196295680626077","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}