Spring Training Recap: Greinke Goes Two, Dodgers Lose Late
In a battle of premier pitchers, Zack Greinke and the Los Angeles Dodgers visited Jon Lester and the Chicago Cubs at Sloan Park.
Lester began his day by quickly dispatching of Jimmy Rollins, Chris Heisey and Yasiel Puig. For his part, Greinke started his day rather erratically, hitting leadoff batter Dexter Fowler, but Anthony Rizzo followed up Fowler by grounding into a 4-6-3 double play on a fine grab by Dodgers second baseman Howie Kendrick.
Kendrick came back in the top of the second and singled with one out, but Scott Van Slyke grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Greinke got into a jam in the bottom of the second inning, walking two and allowing a single. He then jammed Arismendy Alcantara, who popped out to second and nearly got Greinke out of the inning. Mike Baxter followed with a single, which scored Chris Coghlan and Mike Olt to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead.
With two outs in the top of the third, Enrique Hernandez and Rollins hit back-to-back singles for the Dodgers, but Heisey grounded out to end the threat.
After throwing 33 pitches through two innings, Greinke was replaced by 18-year-old Julio Urias in the bottom of the third inning. The left-hander gave up three consecutive singles before a sacrifice fly put another run on the board for the Cubs. Urias was pulled in favor of David Huff, who was able to get the final two outs without any more damage.
Right-handed reliever Brian Schlitter came in for Lester in the fourth inning and loaded the bases with one out, despite not allowing a ball out of the infield. Justin Turner then came up and hit a ground-rule double to put the Dodgers on the board. Joc Pederson, who started the game at left field, brought home Van Slyke on a groundout to first base to tie the game at three.
The bottom of the fourth would have been a normal inning until Puig got the third out on a spectacular leaping catch against the wall in right-center field.
CONTINUE READING: Would the Dodgers end in another tie?
