The Chicago Cubs took on the Italy National Baseball team as a pre-tournament exhibition game in Mesa, Arizona to prepare for the World Baseball Classic which will start on Wednesday. There will be 40 total exhibition games over the next two days.
For both teams, this gives a chance to figure out lineup projections but particularly it benefits the WBC teams in order to give them a chance to prepare, play together and face real competition before the games begin.
Jon Berti and Miles Mastrouboni, both former Cubs, are currently on the roster for Italy. They both played in this game but neither made contributions to the team.
There are also eight Cubs players that will be participating in the WBC: Alex Bregman (USA), Matthew Boyd (USA), Pete Crow-Armstrong (USA), Javier Assad (Mexico), Miquel Amaya (Panama), Daniel Palencia (Venezuela), Seiya Suzuki (Japan) and Jameson Taillon (Canada). Without these players, some starting lineup changes were made for the Cubs with Matt Shaw who played third base most of last season and has now been trying out right field, in center field, Michael Conforto in right field, and Pedro Ramirez at third base.
Chicago stayed on top until the sixth inning where Italy tied the game, followed by them taking the lead in the seventh. In the eighth, team Italy topped off the score with four runs leading to a 9-4 final score.
Team USA also participated in a WBC Exhibition game against the San Francisco Giants. The only player for San Francisco on team USA is pitcher Logan Webb but he did not play in this game. However, Webb will be the starting pitcher for Team USA’s first game against Brazil on Friday.
The Team USA roster is made up of familiar faces to those who keep up with the MLB. Those in the starting lineup were Bobby Witt Jr., Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber, Bregman, Cal Raleigh, Roman Anthony, Byron Buxton and Brice Turang.
Seventeen players for Team USA had at least two at bats during the game and of that 13 were able to get at least one hit.
The team played well overall and ended the game with a final score of 15-1. One of those being a 437-foot homer by Bregman in the fourth. At 3:10 p.m. Thursday, they will play against the Colorado Rockies.
