Starlin Castro couldn’t participate in Spring Training as much as he would’ve liked to. The Dominican shortstop suffered a hamstring issue that sidelined for much of the preseason and despite the fact that he made it for the Opening Day lineup, he often looked rusty and out of sync.
But after his performance today, it’s safe to say that Castro is back and he seems to be more and more like the hit machine that made two consecutive All-Star Games in 2011 and 2012.
Castro went deep twice today but his efforts weren’t enough as the Cubs couldn’t hold on and ended up dropping the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates by a 7-6 score at Wrigley Field.
Despite the loss, there were some encouraging signs for the Cubs’ offense but none other was bigger than Castro’s performance. The 24-year-old infielder went 3-for-4 tonight and homered twice: a three-run shot in the bottom of the third and a solo bomb on the bottom of the sixth.
The Pirates had a healthy cushion after scoring four runs in the first but the Cubs tied it after Castro’s first homer. An RBI single from Andrew McCutchen in the fourth and an RBI triple from Travis Ishikawa in the fifth gave Pittsburgh a two-run lead but Castro’s bomb in the sixth and an RBI single from Anthony Rizzo – who went 2-for-4 and seems like he’s slowly recovering his touch – tied the game after seven.
Unfortunately for the Cubs, Pedro Strop and James Russell loaded the bases in the eighth and the Pirates scored the winning run on a sac fly by Russell Martin that scored Pedro Alvarez. It ends up being a huge blow for the Cubs as the bullpen couldn’t hold a good offensive performance.
However, the focus for the Cubs this season is on the development. In that sense, not everything is lost as the so-called ‘core players’ had a very good game and it seems like the pieces on offense are slowly fitting in.