MESA, Ariz. – Five runs in the final three innings off Carl Edwards Jr. and Seth Frankoff lifted the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 7-3 victory over the Cubs at Sloan Park in an uncommon spring night game Wednesday.
Ben Zobrist (first this spring) and Addison Russell (third) hit back-to-back homers in the fourth to give the Cubs the lead they held for three innings.
And rebound-candidate Jason Heyward singled to right in the second inning – his third hit in four at-bats going back to Tuesday – during a 1-for-3 game.
Snake bit
Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks, the major league ERA champ last year, had his scoreless streak to open spring training snapped at six innings when Ketel Marte’s two-out double in the second inning drove home two runs.
Shortstop Russell – who one batter earlier couldn’t finish off a would-be spectacular play – relayed a throw from left fielder Kyle Schwarber to throw out Jeff Mathis at the plate trying to score on Marte’s hit.
Hendricks went four innings, allowing just the two runs and still hasn’t walked a batter in nine spring innings (10 strikeouts).
“I felt pretty good out there. Not the best,” he said. “The changeup felt good today. Everything arm side was feeling good, the fastball and the changeup off it. I’ve just got to find the glove side of the plate this week.”
Javy talk
Cubs manager Joe Maddon watched the replay of Javy Baez’s no-look, celebratory tag from World Baseball Classic play Tuesday night and suggested that the NLCS co-MVP had earned the right to such occasional showmanship even during the regular season.
“Yeah, it’s probably not frowned upon like it would have if the guy was just showing up from AAA,” Maddon said. “He did [tags] so well in the postseason, and now everybody’s attempting to emulate him. Everybody wants to tag like Javy right now. In a strange way, man, in a very short period of time, he has put himself on the map through his ability to tag somebody out at second base. It’s crazy.”
Bonus baseball
Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta make their starts Thursday and Friday out of the klieg lights of Cactus League play, with Lester pitching an intrasquad game Thursday morning on the Cubs’ main practice field.
Arrieta starts a minor-league game Friday afternoon on one of the minor-league back fields.
On deck
Cubs at Dodgers, Glendale, Ariz., 3:05 p.m. (CT), cubs.com audio, Eddie Butler vs. Hyun-Jin Ryu.
