White Sox starter Dylan Cease found a groove against the Seattle Mariners, retiring 10 of the final 11 batters he faced during Sunday’s outing at Peoria Stadium.
Cease allowed one run on three hits with six strikeouts and one walk in four-plus innings. He retired 10 consecutive batters, including five straight strikeouts, before giving up a single to Kean Wong to lead off the fifth. Cease exited after the hit.
“Kind of got my feel with my body and where to aim everything, and it was just automatic after that,” Cease said.
Sox catcher Seby Zavala doubled and hit a two-run homer — his third this spring — in the 6-2 victory. Outfield prospect Oscar Colás hit a solo homer, also his third of the spring.
Nelson Velázquez, in his return from playing for Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, hit a walk-off three-run homer to give the Cubs a 5-2 win against the San Diego Padres.
Catcher Yan Gomes hit his third home run of the spring — tying Edwin Ríos for the team lead — and recorded an RBI single. The game was delayed briefly in the top of the fourth when reliever Michael Fulmer’s pitch hit Padres catcher Austin Nola in the face. Nola got up under his own power with a towel pressed against his face and was taken off the field on a cart.
Chicago Tribune baseball writers LaMond Pope, Meghan Montemurro and Paul Sullivan will be providing Cubs and White Sox updates throughout spring training.
Justin Steele ‘underwater’ in rough start
Justin Steele didn’t feel right even before he walked five batters in three innings Sunday.
Steele described feeling lethargic and like he was “moving underwater” most of the day leading up to taking the mound against the Padres. He kept trying to make adjustments during his outing and ultimately took a move-on approach to his start.
“I was just fighting myself,” Steele said. “Having to constantly make adjustments from the pitch before, so I was having a battle out there.
“You have those days where your body’s not moving. I’m sure anybody, if you run on the treadmill one day at home, the next day you’re probably not going to feel the exact same.”
When looking for positives from his start, Steele was pleased by how he limited damage. Despite the five walks and four hits allowed, he held the Padres to one run.
Steele estimated he threw about 70 pitches, short of his 80- to 85-pitch goal. He wants to build up to roughly 90 to 100 pitches by his first regular-season start. Steele has one more Cactus League start before the Cubs break camp.
Andrew Vaughn ‘being smart’ with sore back
Andrew Vaughn said he’s “feeling much better” as the White Sox first baseman navigates the lower back soreness that has kept him out of the lineup recently.
“Just was a little tight,” Vaughn said Sunday, “and it’s spring training. Didn’t want to push anything. I’d rather make it through a full season than a couple of spring training games.
“I feel like it was everyday tightness. I didn’t want it to go any further. Just being smart.”
Vaughn took grounders and played catch Sunday morning at Camelback Ranch. He held off on swinging.
“Probably one more day,” he said. “Just let it rest, build up the strength. Be smart about it.”
Vaughn last played March 12.
“I have no concerns with him at all,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “He took ground balls (Sunday), he feels good. If he had to play today and this was a game that we had to win, I think you can make a case for him playing.
“So I don’t have any concerns for him. We’re just erring on the side of caution and making sure that he’s ready to go. … He’s in a good spot as long as he continues to improve and feel better, which he is.”
Vaughn said his target for returning is “as soon as possible.”
Churro vendor knows how to pitch
Instead of cracking line drives or catching pop flies, Jose Javier Moreno hawks churros at spring training games.
The 26-year-old has a vibrant personality that matches his neon polo shirt and kaleidoscopic baseball cap topped with a spinning propeller. His sales pitch is simple — while holding a churro in one hand and his credit card terminal in the other, Moreno points to prospective customers and says, “Chhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooo!!!”
The modern traveling salesman gave up a 9-to-5 job in his hometown of San Diego in 2016 to follow his best friend to the Sonoran Desert and give vending a try. For the first time, he added Sloan Park to his list of gigs this spring training. Fans who go to Cubs spring training games there — or at Peoria Sports Complex, which hosts his hometown Padres — won’t be able to miss him.
A hot day at Tempe Diablo Stadium years ago cemented Moreno’s schtick.
“I didn’t want to sell their best-seller lemonade,” he said. “It was a heavy product and I’ve always been a heavier-set dude. Plus, my inexperience to carry heavy weight in front of people was definitely intimidating.”
That’s when his boss recommended he sell churros, the lightweight, tube-shaped crunchy fried dough snack that’s covered in sugar.
“First thing I’m thinking is, ‘It’s 100 degrees. How am I going to make money with churros?’” Moreno said. “But for the sake of not quitting or losing a job — or disappointing my mom — I went with it.”
As expected, business was slow, the weather was scorching and Moreno was tired of walking. That’s when a customer approached him with a question: Why did Moreno not roll his R’s when he shouted “Churro”?
“Coming from California, I look at him with uncertainty — trying to understand why he would ask me that, thinking it has everything to do with my skin color,” Moreno said. “I took it racially and I was wrong for that because, little did I know, it would later change my vending career.”
The man told Moreno not to take the suggestion in that way but instead to take a lap around the stadium and pronounce the word by inserting a helicopter noise in place of the R’s. He told Moreno his sales would increase — and the unnamed man was right.
“I instantly looked at everybody in the stands and screamed, ‘CHURRROOO,’ and the hands went up,” Moreno said. “At the time, it was the most churros I had ever sold — probably like 30.”
Moreno went viral a few days before spring training was suspended in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Padres announcer and Aurora native Mark Grant ordered a churro from Moreno during the broadcast of a game against the White Sox in Peoria.
“I hand him a churro and he gives me a $20,” Moreno said. “The churro is $5 so that’s a big tip in my book. So I screamed, ‘SUPER TIPPER!’ … I had a great day and went home and that’s when it hit.”
Fans have posted their encounters with Moreno — whose nickname is “Choché” (Choah-chay), or bronco, because he looks like a drummer in a Mexican band by the same name — ever since. He’ll spend the regular season working at ballparks up and down the West Coast.
Up next
- White Sox vs. Diamondbacks, 3:05 p.m.
- Cubs off
World Baseball Classic news
- Left-hander Roenis Elías, a Cubs non-roster invitee, got the semifinal start for Team Cuba on Sunday night in a 14-2 loss to Team USA. Elías allowed three runs on four hits and a walk in two innings.
Sox shortstop Tim Anderson started at second base for Team USA and went 0-for-1 with a sacrifice fly. Sox third baseman Yoán Moncada was 2-for-4 with a run for Cuba, and Sox center fielder Luis Robert was 2-for-5.
- Cubs right-hander Javier Assad and Team Mexico play Monday in the other semifinal against Japan.
- Anderson and Sox pitcher Lance Lynn contributed to Team USA’s thrilling 9-7 victory against Venezuela in Saturday’s quarterfinal in Miami.
Lynn allowed two runs on four hits with two strikeouts and one walk in four innings.
Anderson, playing second base, went 1-for-4 with a walk. He walked leading off the eighth and scored on Trea Turner’s dramatic go-ahead grand slam.
José Ruiz had two strikeouts and a walk and allowed one hit in 1⅔ scoreless innings for Team Venezuela.
What we’re reading this morning
Quotable
“Nico (Hoerner) said I needed to do a sub-2 pop time down to second. I said my arm would fall off. We’ll give that to Boonie. He did it at 50, though, right? Forty-six isn’t 50, so I’ll wait on that.” — Cubs manager David Ross, on his birthday Sunday, when asked if he planned to get in the cage to celebrate like Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who hit a batting-practice homer last year on his birthday
()
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
