White Sox starter Dylan Cease discovered a groove towards the Seattle Mariners, retiring 10 of the ultimate 11 batters he confronted throughout Sunday’s outing at Peoria Stadium.
Cease allowed one run on three hits with six strikeouts and one stroll in four-plus innings. He retired 10 consecutive batters, together with 5 straight strikeouts, earlier than giving up a single to Kean Wong to guide off the fifth. Cease exited after the hit.
“Kind of got my feel with my body and where to aim everything, and it was just automatic after that,” Cease mentioned.
Sox catcher Seby Zavala doubled and hit a two-run homer — his third this spring — within the 6-2 victory. Outfield prospect Oscar Colás hit a solo homer, additionally his third of the spring.
Nelson Velázquez, in his return from enjoying for Team Puerto Rico within the World Baseball Classic, hit a walk-off three-run homer to present the Cubs a 5-2 win towards the San Diego Padres.
Catcher Yan Gomes hit his third house run of the spring — tying Edwin Ríos for the workforce lead — and recorded an RBI single. The recreation was delayed briefly within the prime of the fourth when reliever Michael Fulmer’s pitch hit Padres catcher Austin Nola within the face. Nola obtained up beneath his personal energy with a towel pressed towards his face and was taken off the sector on a cart.
Chicago Tribune baseball writers LaMond Pope, Meghan Montemurro and Paul Sullivan might be offering Cubs and White Sox updates all through spring coaching.
Justin Steele ‘underwater’ in tough begin
Justin Steele didn’t really feel proper even earlier than he walked 5 batters in three innings Sunday.
Steele described feeling torpid and like he was “moving underwater” many of the day main as much as taking the mound towards the Padres. He stored making an attempt to make changes throughout his outing and finally took a move-on strategy to his begin.
“I was just fighting myself,” Steele mentioned. “Having to continuously make changes from the pitch earlier than, so I used to be having a battle on the market.
“You have those days where your body’s not moving. I’m sure anybody, if you run on the treadmill one day at home, the next day you’re probably not going to feel the exact same.”
When on the lookout for positives from his begin, Steele was happy by how he restricted harm. Despite the 5 walks and 4 hits allowed, he held the Padres to at least one run.
Steele estimated he threw about 70 pitches, in need of his 80- to 85-pitch purpose. He desires to construct as much as roughly 90 to 100 pitches by his first regular-season begin. Steele has yet one more Cactus League begin earlier than the Cubs break camp.
Andrew Vaughn ‘being smart’ with sore again
Andrew Vaughn mentioned he’s “feeling much better” because the White Sox first baseman navigates the decrease again soreness that has stored him out of the lineup not too long ago.
“Just was a little tight,” Vaughn mentioned Sunday, “and it’s spring coaching. Didn’t need to push something. I’d relatively make it by means of a full season than a few spring coaching video games.
“I feel like it was everyday tightness. I didn’t want it to go any further. Just being smart.”
Vaughn took grounders and performed catch Sunday morning at Camelback Ranch. He held off on swinging.
“Probably one more day,” he mentioned. “Just let it rest, build up the strength. Be smart about it.”
Vaughn final performed March 12.
“I have no concerns with him at all,” supervisor Pedro Grifol mentioned. “He took floor balls (Sunday), he feels good. If he needed to play right this moment and this was a recreation that we needed to win, I believe you can also make a case for him enjoying.
“So I don’t have any concerns for him. We’re just erring on the side of caution and making sure that he’s ready to go. … He’s in a good spot as long as he continues to improve and feel better, which he is.”
Vaughn mentioned his goal for returning is “as soon as possible.”
Churro vendor is aware of how one can pitch
Instead of cracking line drives or catching pop flies, Jose Javier Moreno hawks churros at spring coaching video games.
The 26-year-old has a vibrant character that matches his neon polo shirt and kaleidoscopic baseball cap topped with a spinning propeller. His gross sales pitch is straightforward — whereas holding a churro in a single hand and his bank card terminal within the different, Moreno factors to potential prospects and says, “Chhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooo!!!”
The trendy touring salesman gave up a 9-to-5 job in his hometown of San Diego in 2016 to observe his finest good friend to the Sonoran Desert and provides merchandising a strive. For the primary time, he added Sloan Park to his record of gigs this spring coaching. Fans who go to Cubs spring coaching video games there — or at Peoria Sports Complex, which hosts his hometown Padres — received’t have the ability to miss him.
A sizzling day at Tempe Diablo Stadium years in the past cemented Moreno’s schtick.
“I didn’t want to sell their best-seller lemonade,” he mentioned. “It was a heavy product and I’ve always been a heavier-set dude. Plus, my inexperience to carry heavy weight in front of people was definitely intimidating.”
That’s when his boss beneficial he promote churros, the light-weight, tube-shaped crunchy fried dough snack that’s coated in sugar.
“First thing I’m thinking is, ‘It’s 100 degrees. How am I going to make money with churros?’” Moreno mentioned. “But for the sake of not quitting or losing a job — or disappointing my mom — I went with it.”
As anticipated, enterprise was gradual, the climate was scorching and Moreno was uninterested in strolling. That’s when a buyer approached him with a query: Why did Moreno not roll his R’s when he shouted “Churro”?
“Coming from California, I look at him with uncertainty — trying to understand why he would ask me that, thinking it has everything to do with my skin color,” Moreno mentioned. “I took it racially and I was wrong for that because, little did I know, it would later change my vending career.”
The man informed Moreno to not take the suggestion in that method however as a substitute to take a lap across the stadium and pronounce the phrase by inserting a helicopter noise rather than the R’s. He informed Moreno his gross sales would enhance — and the unnamed man was proper.
“I instantly looked at everybody in the stands and screamed, ‘CHURRROOO,’ and the hands went up,” Moreno mentioned. “At the time, it was the most churros I had ever sold — probably like 30.”
Moreno went viral a couple of days earlier than spring coaching was suspended in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Padres announcer and Aurora native Mark Grant ordered a churro from Moreno in the course of the broadcast of a recreation towards the White Sox in Peoria.
“I hand him a churro and he gives me a $20,” Moreno mentioned. “The churro is $5 so that’s a big tip in my book. So I screamed, ‘SUPER TIPPER!’ … I had a great day and went home and that’s when it hit.”
Fans have posted their encounters with Moreno — whose nickname is “Choché” (Choah-chay), or bronco, as a result of he appears to be like like a drummer in a Mexican band by the identical identify — ever since. He’ll spend the common season working at ballparks up and down the West Coast.
Up subsequent
- White Sox vs. Diamondbacks, 3:05 p.m.
- Cubs off
World Baseball Classic information
- Left-hander Roenis Elías, a Cubs non-roster invitee, obtained the semifinal begin for Team Cuba on Sunday evening in a 14-2 loss to Team USA. Elías allowed three runs on 4 hits and a stroll in two innings.
Sox shortstop Tim Anderson began at second base for Team USA and went 0-for-1 with a sacrifice fly. Sox third baseman Yoán Moncada was 2-for-4 with a run for Cuba, and Sox middle fielder Luis Robert was 2-for-5.
- Cubs right-hander Javier Assad and Team Mexico play Monday within the different semifinal towards Japan.
- Anderson and Sox pitcher Lance Lynn contributed to Team USA’s thrilling 9-7 victory towards Venezuela in Saturday’s quarterfinal in Miami.
Lynn allowed two runs on 4 hits with two strikeouts and one stroll in 4 innings.
Anderson, enjoying second base, went 1-for-4 with a stroll. He walked main off the eighth and scored on Trea Turner’s dramatic go-ahead grand slam.
José Ruiz had two strikeouts and a stroll and allowed one hit in 1⅔ scoreless innings for Team Venezuela.
What we’re studying this morning
Quotable
“Nico (Hoerner) said I needed to do a sub-2 pop time down to second. I said my arm would fall off. We’ll give that to Boonie. He did it at 50, though, right? Forty-six isn’t 50, so I’ll wait on that.” — Cubs supervisor David Ross, on his birthday Sunday, when requested if he deliberate to get within the cage to have fun like Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone, who hit a batting-practice homer final yr on his birthday
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Source: www.bostonherald.com