{"id":611745,"date":"2026-03-07T14:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/611745\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T14:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:16:17","slug":"padres-3-cubs-0-moises-ballesteros-has-another-good-abs-challenge-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/611745\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres 3, Cubs 0: Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros has another good ABS challenge game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cubs catcher Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros made three ABS challenges in Friday night\u2019s 3-0 Cubs loss to the Padres<\/a>, and got all of them right.<\/p>\n

As you know, Ballesteros has previously been known as a catcher who\u2019s probably better off as a DH. It appears, to me at least, that being good at ABS challenges is a useful skill. So\u2026 maybe Ballesteros will see some catching time during the regular season. He\u2019s getting opportunities now because Miguel Amaya is off at the World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ll get to the challenges shortly. Ben Brown, who started this game, struggled. He allowed three hits, walked three, hit two batters and was charged with all three Padres runs. That\u2019s\u2026 not good. Brown will get more starting chances this spring. His future could be in the bullpen\u2026 or at Triple-A Iowa being stretched out to start. As always, we await developments.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s video of two of the three successful Ballesteros challenges. First, in the bottom of the third [VIDEO].<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another, in the bottom of the fourth [VIDEO].<\/a><\/p>\n

Good work by Ballesteros on both of those.<\/p>\n

Cubs relievers combined for 5.1 shutout innings in this game, allowing three hits, two walks and striking out five. The only one of those relievers likely to make the Opening Day roster was Jacob Webb. Also in this group were Collin Snider, Ethan Roberts, Ryan Rolison and minor leaguer Charlie Barnes.<\/p>\n

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The offense didn\u2019t do much. Ballesteros had two hits, raising his spring BA to .372, and Matt Shaw also had a pair of hits. The Cubs also drew three walks and left nine on base, going 0-for-8 with RISP.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the tale of the first night game of the spring.<\/p>\n

The Cubs will face the A\u2019s at Sloan Park Saturday afternoon. Sh\u014dta Imanaga will start for the Cubs, and hopefully will keep the ball in the yard this time. Mason Barnett starts for the A\u2019s. Game time is 2:05 p.m. CT. No TV today, but there will be a radio broadcast via WSCR\/The Score.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cubs catcher Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros made three ABS challenges in Friday night\u2019s 3-0 Cubs loss to the Padres, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1898,5,734,4814,161,881,442,43042,716,728,4,1896,43,8052,4271,4820],"class_list":["post-611745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ballesteros","tag-baseball","tag-ben-brown","tag-collin-snider","tag-cubs","tag-ethan-roberts","tag-jacob-webb","tag-mason-barnett","tag-matt-shaw","tag-miguel-amaya","tag-mlb","tag-moises-ballesteros","tag-padres","tag-ryan-rolison","tag-the-cubs","tag-world-baseball-classic"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116188321232377580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}