Cubs 6, Mariners 4: Yu Darvish leaves game with blister

MESA, Arizona — Well, I told you this would be an odd baseball game.

I thought it would be a yawner, something with no predictive value for the season to come at all.

The Cubs’ 6-4 win over a team of miscellaneous Mariners minor leaguers and NRI’s instead had several occurrences of significance.

The first was Yu Darvish leaving the game with two out in the fifth (and one strike to go to finish the inning) with an apparent blister. Here’s how it looked:

Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be anything serious:

This quote is actually a good thing. It shows he’s got a sense of humor, and can express that in English. Good stuff. More about Darvish:

Darvish’s next start, if everyone stays on schedule, should be Sunday against the Padres in Peoria, or, if the team doesn’t want him to make the bus ride, perhaps in camp against minor leaguers.

Then there was a bit of a kerfuffle regarding hit batters. Kris Bryant and Willson Contreras both got hit, and that shouldn’t have been a big deal. Remember, these are minor-league pitchers the Cubs were facing. Then this happened:

I mean... that pitch looked like it got away. You can see CJ’s reaction of disbelief in the video, as noted by Jordan Bastian. Don’t think I can recall the last time — if ever — a Cub was ejected from a spring training game.

Then there was yet another good inning thrown by Tyler Chatwood. Granted, this was against minor leaguers, and three substitute minor leaguers at that. But he threw strikes and got three ground ball outs. It’s yet another positive sign for Chatwood, who might just be a great secret weapon in the Cubs bullpen this year.

Here’s video of Willson Contreras throwing out a runner in the first inning:

Thus, showing Willson is just fine after taking a foul ball off his hand last Thursday.

So, this game was pretty eventful, despite being against minor leaguers. Darvish singled in a run, too, in a three-run Cubs fourth.

Attendance watch: On a perfect 82-degree afternoon, the Cubs came up short of a sellout. 13,576 paid to see this one, making the season total for 13 dates 173,899, or 13,377 per date.

Onward: This recap is also serving as a preview for tonight’s game against the Royals. That game will begin at 8:05 p.m. CT. All the threads for both games will reside in the same StoryStream, and a recap for tonight’s game will post at the usual time, 8 a.m. CT tomorrow.

Here are the particulars for tonight’s game.

Cubs lineup:

Almora CF, Adames 3B, Bote 2B, Caratini C, Russell SS, Adduci 1B, Field LF, Zagunis RF, J. Young DH

Jared Young, tonight’s DH, has been getting quite a bit of playing time in big-league spring games. He’s definitely a prospect to watch. Will probably start this year at Myrtle Beach.

Royals lineup:

Merrifield 2B, Mondesi SS, Gordon LF, Soler RF, O’Hearn 1B, Schwindel DH, Dozier 3B, Maldonado C, Hamilton CF

Thomas Hatch, who was the Cubs’ top pick in 2016, will start tonight’s game. Cubs relievers tonight: Dillon Maples, James Norwood, Randy Rosario, Allen Webster and Rowan Wick .

Jakob Junis will go for the Royals. Other pitchers on the Royals list for tonight: Kyle Zimmer, Jake Diekman, Brad Boxberger, Wily Peralta and Scott Barlow.

Tonight’s game is on 670 The Score. It’s also going to be televised via the Royals network Fox Sports Kansas City and will be available on MLB.tv.

MLB.com Gameday

Please note that during spring training, Gameday doesn’t usually go pitch-by-pitch as it does during the regular season — usually, it will update after each at-bat.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

Please visit our SB Nation Royals site Royals Review. If you do go there to interact with Royals fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.

For spring-training games, we’ll have a first-pitch thread at five minutes to game time and one overflow thread, 90 minutes after game time (because I know how you all like overflow threads!). For tonight, that will be 8 p.m. CT and 9:30 p.m. CT.

These threads will not post individually onto the front page; instead, you can find links to them in the box marked ”Chicago Cubs Game Threads” at the bottom of the front page. There will also be a StoryStream on the front page with all the game thread links, as well as the recap after the game is over. The pitcher boxes and regular-season stats will return on Opening Day.

Discuss amongst yourselves.