One day, I will be able to write up a Cubs recap and present a lot of highlights from the game.
Today is not that day. (Though I do have SOME video to show you.)
The Cubs lost to the Rockies 4-3 at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale Saturday afternoon, another very warm day in the Phoenix area (84 degrees at game time, likely warmer tomorrow). A walkoff homer by a Rockies minor leaguer named Braxton Fulford off Grant Kipp won the game for Colorado, and obviously that means nothing for the 2026 regular season Cubs.
The much bigger story of this game is Ben Brown, who had a very good outing. Brown threw four innings, allowed two hits and one run, didn’t walk anyone and struck out six. He threw an efficient 51 pitches (39 strikes).
Here’s a breakdown of Brown’s day [VIDEO].
And here are the six K’s [VIDEO].
If Brown could throw like that all the time, well, he’d be in the Cubs rotation. Consistency has been one of his big issues. Yes, Rockies today, but that team does have some good hitters and, on a split-squad day for Colorado, many of their regular-season starters were in their lineup. So good for Ben — now go out there and do it again next time, which might wind up being one of the Cubs’ split-squad games next Friday.
Again, I fail to understand, if there’s a video feed like that one available, why that feed couldn’t be streamed. People would watch that! The audio is, as noted, from the Cubs radio broadcast on The Score.
MLB and its teams have to do some hard thinking about how to handle Spring Training games on TV going forward. This year has been a pretty big failure on that account.
The Cubs’ runs scored on a single by Kevin Alcántara, a sacrifice fly by Jonathon Long and a throwing error by Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman after an attempted steal by Matt Shaw. Hoerner scored on the error. Good to see Long back in the lineup after missing three weeks with an elbow issue caused by a collision in a Sloan Park game in February. He went 1-for-3 with the sac fly as the DH in this game.
Hunter Harvey allowed the Rockies a run in the sixth, unearned due to a throwing error by Scott Kingery that allowed Brenton Doyle to reach base to lead off the inning.
The game remained 3-2 until the bottom of the ninth, when the aforementioned walkoff homer happened, sending Rockies fans home happy.
The Cubs return to Sloan Park Sunday afternoon to take on the Dodgers. Jameson Taillon, just returned from the World Baseball Classic, will start for the Cubs and Emmet Sheehan goes for the Dodgers. Game time is 3:05 p.m. CT and this game will be televised on both Marquee Sports Network and the Dodgers channel SportsNet LA — so there will be game highlights Sunday! There will also be a radio broadcast via WSCR The Score.
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