CUBS 5, GIANTS 5
PEDERSON FLYING HIGH
If there’s anyone ready for Opening Day, it’s Cubs left fielder Joc Pederson, who’s putting an exclamation point on a great camp. He crushed a pair of two-run homers in the Cubs’ tie with the Giants on Friday. He opened the scoring in the first inning with a towering shot to the lawn in right field. His second blast came in the fifth, giving the Cubs a 5-3 lead and giving himself an MLB-leading seven homers this spring. It also was his first homer off a left-hander (Jose Alvarez) this spring.
“We’re gonna try to get him as many at-bats as we can against left-handed pitching, and he wants that,” manager David
Ross said earlier this month. “He’s hungry for that.
Then [we’ll] just try to eyeball it. He’s gonna have to put up the numbers, but [we’ll] also watch the at-bats. Try to identify from my seat, in our seat as a group, what matchup may be tough left-on-left, and maybe that’s the day he gets days off or comes off the bench.”
MILLS ENDS SPRING IN B GAME
Right-hander Alec Mills pitched five innings in an intrasquad game Friday, his last outing of the spring. Mills is in a competition with righthander Adbert Alzolay to be the Cubs’ fifth starter.
“I’m not making the decision, so all I can do is go out there and pitch,” Mills said. “I think competit ion can only breed success if everybody’s fighting for — whatever you want to say — one or two spots. But I think it’s only gonna make everybody better. I think we’re fighting against each other, [and] as long as it’s something where it’s all for the [good] of the team, it’s gonna make everybody better.”
ON DECK
Cubs at Reds, 8:05 p.m. Saturday, Goodyear, Shelby Miller vs. Luis Castillo.