John Lester, in his third start of spring training with the Cubs, got some work done. He mainly worked on his fastball all game. John Lester threw 62 pitches as he is gearing up for the long spring training to be over. “I am just trying not to die out there. We just threw a lot of fastballs.” Lester while speaking to Bruce Levine. “They obviously knew that. My goal was to get my fastball back to the right location and angle. I missed a lot today. I just will continue to work on it.” The main work that Lester is putting in is with finding his new catcher.
Willson Contreras is stepping up to the plate with John for the season. He will be Lester's number one catcher all season with the retirement of Grandpa Ross. All the work that these two put in together will be important down the stretch of the season.
During the actual game
As John Lester worked on his fastballs, the Cubs were playing the Dodgers. Eddie Butler got the start against them. He looked good against them throwing four innings, shutting them out. Playing against most of the Dodgers' starters he allowed one single and struck four out. The other relieve pitchers coming in, Justin Grimm, David Rollins, Jim Henderson and Caleb Smith didn't give up one run after Butler. The big standout of this game came from Yasiel Puig.
While going against Jim Henderson, Yasiel got tossed after throwing his bat on a called third strike. The four relievers united for five innings allowing only two hits, two walks and struck out five.
Cubs' minor league players controlled the game
The major-league players got their bats some work before the minor-league guys stepped in the game.
Albert Almora smacked a double and was driven in by Matt Szczur during the first inning for the Cubs. After the minor-league guys stepped in shortly after. Taylor Davis (team all Rod Beck) led off in the eighth with a single. He was driven in next by Bijan Rademacher when he hit a double giving them a 2-0. In the ninth to cap off the day they got two more runs by Chris Dominguez and Jacob Hannemann. The Cubs will be playing the White Sox today at 2:05 on CSN Chicago.
