In the battle of back spasms, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa are even heading into Tuesday night’s opener of a three-game series between the Cubs and San Francisco Giants at Wrigley Field.
Bonds has missed the last three games with back spasms, but Giants trainer Stan Conte said he was much improved on Sunday, and the man chasing Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth could return to left field Tuesday night.
Sosa missed Sunday’s game with back spasms that originated with a hard sneeze. He could be rested for at least the first game of the Giants series.
Sosa’s sneeze has become international news, as evidenced by a BBC Web site that reported: “Sosa’s record with the Chicago Cubs is nothing to be sneezed at, but even the great man occasionally catches a cold.”
LEARNED: Cubs starter Matt Clement, who opens the series against the Giants’ Jason Schmidt on Tuesday, discovered what not to do the hard way last year at San Francisco.
Baker let Clement pitch to Bonds with first base open in the third inning. “I wasn’t going to walk him with two strikes,” Baker said afterward. “To me, that’s not baseball.”
Bonds homered to left-center on Clement’s 2-2 pitch.
Clement is at the top of his game with a 5-2 record and 2.78 ERA, and he could get a chance to challenge Bonds again. “If you ask any pitcher, they want to face him,” Clement said.
Wood, Prior make progress
Three months ago Kerry Wood and Mark Prior were posing together for Sports Illustrated. Monday the two Cubs starters threw at a near-empty Wrigley Field, working on comebacks after their respective injuries.
Wood threw off flat ground for the first time since leaving last Tuesday’s start in Los Angeles with triceps tendinitis. A team official who observed the session said Wood felt a lot better, and if all goes as planned, Wood could start this weekend against St. Louis.
But the Cubs tend to be ultra-conservative when it comes to pitching injuries and may rest Wood for one more start if he’s not 100 percent healthy. If Wood misses his turn this weekend, he likely wouldn’t return until the May 28-30 series at Pittsburgh.
Prior also is said to have thrown well in a side session on Monday and is preparing to throw 45-50 pitches on Thursday for Class-A Lansing.
