The games don't count, but do Cubs have cause for concern?
When exhibition season happens in Arizona, it's easy to divert attention and take an attitude of "wins and losses don't matter."
But there was no chance to ignore the past two days. The Cubs were beaten pretty handily twice by the White Sox inside the Chicago city limits and with no other sports on television.
Monday's final score was misleading. The Cubs lost 5-3 at Guaranteed Rate Field, but the way it happened was ugly.
The White Sox collected their 5 runs off Cubs starter Yu Darvish when the first five batters reached and former Cubs slugger Eloy Jimenez delivered a first-pitch grand slam to center field.
On the other side, White Sox starter Dallas Keuchel faced the minimum of 15 batters in five innings. Kyle Schwarber collected the lone hit off Keuchel and was quickly erased in a double play.
So while it's still true that exhibition games are meaningless, it's also easy to wonder if this familiar Cubs lineup is still loaded with free swingers who can get shut down by good pitching.
"I don't put a lot of stock into the overall outcome," manager David Ross said after the game. "Dallas was pitching well tonight and staying off the barrel as he does. They played some great defense early on. (Yoan) Moncada made some really nice plays on some hard-hit balls.
"You saw the ball start to bounce our way a little bit later on. If that happens early on, maybe it's a different game. Other than that one five-spot, we did pretty good."
Inconsistent pitching is another familiar Cubs trait. On Sunday, Kyle Hendricks started well, then was tagged with 3 earned runs in the fifth inning. On Monday, Darvish settled down and allowed no further damage but saw plenty of harm early.
"I think mainly with the two-strike pitches just kind of leaking over the middle," Ross said of Darvish. "He got a little sharper as things progressed. The splitty came into play a little later on, you saw some real depth with the split-finger.
"He just didn't find that release point early on, especially with two strikes. All in all, the stuff looked good, just not quite sharp there early on."
Even when the Cubs finally got on the board with 3 runs in the seventh inning, it was with the help of 2 errors by backup shortstop Danny Mendick. The rally included singles from Kris Bryant and Schwarber, and a grounder by David Bote that went for an error was hit hard enough to be considered a base hit. Either way, Cubs hitters weren't especially impressive in these two contests.
The only real bright spot for the Cubs on Monday was the bullpen. Four relievers - James Norwood, Ryan Tepera, Jeremy Jeffress and Craig Kimbrel - threw scoreless innings and collectively allowed just 1 hit.
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