Cubs 5, Athletics 4: This and that

MESA, Arizona — The Cubs defeated the A’s 5-4 on yet another perfect Arizona March afternoon, and wins are always good.

But the winning rally came long after all the regular Cubs departed the game, and I’ll get to that, but I thought first it would be important to talk about the players who actually will be Chicago Cubs come Opening Day.

Marcus Stroman made his first start in front of the home crowd. The outing wasn’t bad, but Stroman did allow the leadoff hitter to reach base in each of the three innings he began, and that’s never a good thing, as two of those runners scored. He did get his ground ball working and got a couple of outs in the second inning that way, and had three strikeouts…