MESA, Ariz. \u2014 Left-hander Justin Steele returned to the United States jet-lagged but jazzed that he would get the start Thursday against the Diamondbacks in the Cubs\u2019 domestic opener.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a relief after the outing he had in his season debut Wednesday in Tokyo.<\/p>\n
In Game 2 of the Cubs\u2019 season-opening series this week against the Dodgers, Steele (0-1) was tagged for five runs and five hits, including home runs by Kike Hernandez and Tommy Edman, in four innings. Steele walked one and struck out five.<\/p>\n
Righty Jameson Taillon will get the Game\u2009\u20092 nod in the four-game opening series at Chase Field. Manager Craig Counsell hasn\u2019t announced when Shota Imanaga will start against the D-backs. Imanaga pitched four scoreless innings in the opener against the Dodgers, walking four and striking out two.<\/p>\n
In the domestic opener, Steele will face Diamondbacks right-hander Zac Gallen, who will be making his third consecutive Opening Day start. Steele was the Cubs\u2019 Opening Day starter last season, but it wound up being his last start until May after he injured his hamstring in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n
As the Cubs returned to Arizona to finish Cactus League play and make some adjustments before the domestic opener, the club granted the release Friday of non-roster infielder Nicky Lopez.<\/p>\n
Lopez, who spent last season with the White Sox, already has reportedly attracted interest from the Rockies. The move came after the Cubs didn\u2019t include the veteran on their Japan travel roster. Lopez, who requested his release, was battling for a utility role with Jon Berti and Vidal Brujan.<\/p>\n
The Cubs returned to Cactus League play Friday, while the Dodgers returned directly to Los Angeles, deciding not to play until Sunday, when they face the Angels in their annual Freeway Series.<\/p>\n
The Cubs\u2019 lineup in a 5-1 loss to the Padres at Sloan Park featured mostly minor-leaguers and the Cactus League debut of Nico Hoerner, who went 0-for-3 as he returns from flexor tendon surgery on his right arm.<\/p>\n
Counsell said the Cubs will ease their way back into action.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet everybody kind of recover on a case-by-case basis,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cEverybody has got to listen to their bodies in this situation. Today [and Saturday], we\u2019re just getting everybody running around .\u2009.\u2009. and we\u2019ll start some normal spring-training games on Sunday. There is a challenge of playing regular-season games and then going back to spring training, I think we have to acknowledge, apart from the travel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first game of the Tokyo Series on Tuesday averaged more than 25 million viewers in Japan, according to Major League Baseball, making it the most watched major-league game in the country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
The audience for the Dodgers\u2019 Game 1 victory over the Cubs surpassed the 18.7 million viewers who tuned in for the first game of last year\u2019s Seoul Series in South Korea, which featured the Dodgers against the Padres.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s game featured the first all-Japanese starting-pitching duel between the Dodgers\u2019 Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Imanaga.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers\u2019 6-3 win Wednesday, which featured a homer by Shohei Ohtani, averaged more than 23 million Japanese viewers. The second game also featured pitcher Roki Sasaki making his Dodgers debut.<\/p>\n
The two games in the United States \u2014 which started at 5 a.m. in Chicago and 3 a.m. in Los Angeles \u2014 averaged 590,000 viewers. Tuesday\u2019s game on Fox averaged 838,000 viewers with Wednesday\u2019s on FS1 drawing 361,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jameson Taillon will get the Game\u2009\u20092 nod in the four-game opening series at Chase Field. Manager Craig Counsell hasn\u2019t announced when Shota Imanaga will start against the D-backs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":43321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n