Ben Brown

The right-hander also issued three free passes in the ballgame while striking out three. Brown struggled with his command in the opening inning, issuing a bases-loaded walk to Gavin Sheets. He allowed another pair in the third inning as Nick Castellanos delivered an RBI single and then another run scored on a wild pitch. Brown threw just 29 of his 48 pitches for strikes in the ballgame, getting five whiffs and posting a CSW of 25 percent. If he continues to struggle like this, Brown is likely ticketed for Triple-A Iowa to start the season.

Castellanos delivered a run-scoring single off of Ben Brown in the third inning, increasing the Padres' lead to 2-0. He's off to a nice start with his new ballclub, hitting .333 (7-for-21) with a homer and six RBI while proving that he can be at least a capable defender at first base.

The Cubs shut out the defending World Series champions.

Colin Rea, Ben Brown and Assad are competing to make the Cubs as middle relievers but also to be first into the rotation should anything happen, and all three pitched today. Rea opened up with three scoreless frames, Brown followed by striking out three in two scoreless innings and Assad then kept the Dodgers scoreless through the eighth. Of the group, Rea is a lock to have a roster spot and Brown is most likely to open up in Triple-A. Assad is probably better than 50/50 to have a spot, but it'd certainly help his chances if someone got hurt.

This is going to be an old-school recap, because I do not have any video of the Cubs 3-2 win over the Royals to show you. So you ll have to deal with descriptions, and a few MLB Gameday graphics. Ben Brown threw the first two innings for the Cubs. It was a good outing. He [ ]