Cubs open with a bang

The Cubs opened their Cactus League season by showing a little bit of everything I was hoping for out of the players I’m counting on to keep the Cubs playing October baseball. Cubs over the Giants 12-6 in the opener on the road in Scottsdale.

Three hits and a stolen base from Ryan Theriot in the leadoff spot. A triple and a three-run homer for Mike Fontenot. Kosuke Fukudome got on base three times in three trips including a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Felix Pie had a homer, a double and a walk in three trips. Derrek Lee had a hit and a walk in two trips. Geovany Soto got a hit. Ronny Cedeno had a RBI, stole a base and scored a run. Even Koyie Hill and Micah Hoffpauir each had a hit and an RBI. Best of all, as a team they drew six walks while only striking out three times.

On the pitching side, four of the six runs were given up by pitchers with no Major League experience who weren’t expected to make the cut a month from now, five if you add Sean Gallagher, who has a lot of veterans to squeeze past to make the cut. That left one run, a solo homer, on three hits over 5-2/3 innings among Ryan Dempster, Neal Cotts, Carmen Pigniatello, Jose Ascanio and Kevin Hart.

Meanwhile the Cubs scored 10 of their 12 runs against three pitchers who were on the Giants roster all last year; Noah Lowry, Edwin Correia and Brad Hennessey.

Sure, it’s just the spring training opener, everybody’s still getting their feet wet after a long winter and both managers have to play as many guys as they can to visualize their final rosters. But boy oh boy, it’s a good way to start.