Chicago Cubs Score and Recap (3/5/24): Royals 4, Cubs 0 – Cubs Blanked in Surprise

The Cubs were in Surprise to take on the Royals in the first night game of the spring Tuesday. Chicago did very little of note and Kansas City pitched a 4-0 shutout.

Caleb Kilian made the start and was doing well until he had to leave the game with an apparent injury in the 3rd inning. Frankie Scalzo and his tremendous mustache came on and the Royals took a 1-0 lead via Maikel Garcia sacrifice fly.

Tyler Gentry blasted a three-run homer off of lefty Richard Lovelady in the 7th inning to put the game on ice for KC. (Box score)

Why the Cubs Lost

The hitters got almost nothing going on Tuesday night and they never really had a chance to win.

Stats That Matter

• Kilian is very likely to start the season in Iowa but he could be an important depth piece for the MLB team, so they’re hoping he does not have a serious injury.
• Ben Brown was sharp in two clean innings of relief.
• Owen Caissie‘s only at-bat resulted in a double.

Bottom Line

The first goal of any spring training is to avoid injuries, so having Kilian leave like he did was not good. Other than that, there isn’t much more to take away from this one.

On Deck

The Cubs welcome the Angels to Sloan Park on Wednesday at 2:10pm CT. Justin Steele gets the start and Cody Bellinger makes his first appearance of the spring in a game available on Marquee.