Cubs 3, Royals 2: Jefferson Rojas homers in the Cubs’ first spring win

This is going to be an old-school recap, because I do not have any video of the Cubs’ 3-2 win over the Royals to show you.

So you’ll have to deal with descriptions, and a few MLB Gameday graphics.

Ben Brown threw the first two innings for the Cubs. It was a good outing. He allowed two hits, no runs and struck out three.

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Here is one of the strikeouts, of Salvador Perez. Brown stuck with his fastball and curve, and check out some of the velocity:

Hopefully, Brown will begin to mix in some of the other pitches he says he’s been working on. He threw 30 pitches (20 strikes).

Javier Assad threw 1.1 innings and didn’t allow a run, throwing 20 strikes among his 29 pitches, a good first outing of the spring.

In the fourth, Jefferson Rojas gave the Cubs a 1-0 lead with his first home run of the spring. This is an excellent location for a pitch to hit and Rojas did not miss:

The Cubs scored two more runs in the fifth off former Cubs No. 1 draft pick (2017) Alex Lange, thanks in part to an error from the usually sure-handed Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. James Triantos singled in both runs. Triantos and Scott Kingery also stole bases in that inning.

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There were a number of ABS challenges in this game and here’s one made by Royals center fielder Kyle Isbel. The call on the field was strike three and it was confirmed. As you can see, it was close, but a strike:

For the Cubs, Ariel Armas and Justin Dean both challenged and the calls were confirmed, so by the sixth inning the Cubs had no challenges left. That’s fine for a spring game where guys are testing out the system, but in a regular season game you probably won’t see two challenges like that, that early.

Porter Hodge had a much better outing this time than his first time out, striking out a pair in a scoreless inning, with just one walk. I’d think Hodge still has a chance at the Opening Day roster, if he can put together more innings like this.

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Ryan Rolison and Collin Snider, both of whom could wind up on the Iowa Shuttle this year, threw scoreless innings against mostly Royals minor leaguers. Josh Rojas homered off Cubs minor leaguer Tyler Ras for KC’s only run.

That’s about all I’ve got from this one, without any video to show you.

The Cubs will return to Sloan Park Tuesday afternoon to face the Padres. Shōta Imanaga will start for the Cubs and Marco Gonzales will go for San Diego. Game time Tuesday is again 2:05 p.m. CT. No TV again Tuesday, and there will be a radio broadcast online via SD Audio.