Cubs Clutch Hitting Gets Lost in the Translation

Prepping for the first game of 2nd Round WBC play in San Diego on Sunday, Team Japan defeated the Chicago Cubs 3-2 at Dwight Patterson Field at HoHoKam Park on a cool & breezy Thursday afternoon in Mesa, AZ.  box score Only 6,591 fans attended the game, but it was one of the best Spring Training games I've seen in a while. There were several fine defensive plays by both teams, and Team Japan put on a clinic in the finer points of baseball fundamentals. Carlos Zambrano got the start for the Cubs, and I guess for him it was almost like pitching in the WBC. Except instead of wearing a Team Venezuela jersey, he was clad in familar Cubbie pinstripes. Facing essentially a major league lineup of Japanese players that included the likes of Ichiro Suzuki, Kosuke Fukudome, Kenji Johjima, and Akinori Iwakura, Zambrano retired the first six hitters in a row on just 18 pitches (combined) over the first two innings. But "Z" hit a bump in the r...