The Cubs welcomed the Royals to Sloan Park on Wednesday afternoon for what turned out to be a high-scoring affair. The lead changed hands multiple times before the home team finally walked it off in the bottom of the 9th for the win.
Kansas City went in front in the bottom of the 1st inning when Lane Thomas tripled and then scored on a throwing error by second baseman Nico Hoerner. Chicago had a big rally in the 2nd when Pedro Ramirez hit a grand slam and Hoerner followed with a solo shot to give them a 5-1 edge.
The Royals went on a home run tear to eventually go on top in the middle innings. Brett Squires had a two-run shot in the 3rd, then Elias Diaz and Luca Tresh hit a pair of solo homers to tie the score in the 4th. Finally, Peyton Wilson blasted a solo jack to give the road team a 6-5 advantage in the top of the 7th.
The North Siders responded immediately with RBI singles from Brett Bateman and Scott Kingery to move back ahead 7-6 in the bottom of the frame. KC evened the score in the 8th and retook the lead on another solo homer in the top of the 9th.
The Cubs came back one more time in the final at bat, scoring twice with the winning run coming home on a double by Matt Halbach to secure a 9-8 victory. (Box score)
Key Moment
A called third strike against Halbach in the final inning was overturned after a challenge, then he hit the game-winning double on the next pitch.
Why the Cubs Won
They kept scoring runs and eventually outlasted the Royals.
Stats That Matter
- Colin Rea gave up three homers and four earned runs in four innings.
- Hoerner had a walk in addition to his home run.
- Kingery had two hits and two RBI.
Bottom Line
This is just one of those crazy spring training games with a lot of homers in the thin Arizona air. It doesn’t offer much insight into anything that is going to happen in the regular season.
On Deck
The Mariners come to Sloan Park for a game on Thursday at 3:05pm CT. Edward Cabrera gets the start, and once again, there is no television coverage.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cubsinsider.com ’
