April 01--The summary
Manager Joe Maddon made the trip to Surprise on Tuesday while pitching coach Chris Bosio stayed in Mesa to monitor Jon Lester's minor-league game. Left-hander Eric Jokisch, who will start the season at Triple-A Iowa, was tagged for seven runs on 10 hits in 31/3 innings. The Cubs, however, rallied for eight runs in the ninth to pull out a 15-10 victory.
At the plate
It's looking tougher to keep outfielder Matt Szczur off the roster. Szczur went 2-for-2 with his fourth home run of the spring off left-hander Derrek Holland and is batting .349.
On the mound
Left-hander Drake Britton, one of several former Red Sox players in spring training camp, allowed two runs in the sixth after the Cubs cut their deficit to 7-5.
In the field
Versatile Arismendy Alcantara started at second base and could get the nod there against right-handed pitchers. Alcantara played defense exceptionally well at second last season until Javier Baez was promoted, thus moving Alcantara to center field where he has become even more valuable under Maddon.
Key number
43 -- Cubs home runs this spring.
The quote
"(Kris Bryant) deserves all the hype he gets. He's one of the best ones that I've seen come up. In that regard, I was just working on what I needed to work on, and it's easy to focus on that when you have a lot of things to work on." -- Mike Olt, who will be manning third base while Bryant is in Triple A.
Up next
Vs. Milwaukee, 3:05 p.m., Wednesday at Sloan Park. RH Jason Hammel vs. RH Kyle Lohse.
