Edwin Jackson Went to Wrong Stadium Before Getting Lit Up by Oakland A's

The Oakland Athletics mauled Edwin Jackson on Tuesday.

The Chicago Cubs righty took the mound in the second inning and was immediately ravaged to the tune of nine hits and eight runs scored over the course of 1.2 innings.

Jackson essentially served as batting practice for Oakland, and perhaps fittingly, he admitted his disastrous performance occurred after a morning spent driving around trying to find the stadium.

CSN Chicago’s Patrick Mooney reports that the 31-year-old pitcher showed up late for the Cubs’ spring training tilt against Oakland after driving to the wrong venue. According to Mooney, Jackson turned to Google Maps for guidance and ended up at Phoenix Municipal Stadium—the Athletics’ old spring training digs.

“I actually put it in Google Maps and typed in ‘Oakland Athletics spring training complex,’” Jackson said. “It took me to the old one. I know, it’s crazy, but, yeah, that pretty much sums it up.”

After getting his bearings, Jackson made it to Oakland’s new facility, Hohokam Stadium, 25 minutes before the game’s first pitch. Relief pitcher Blake Parker pitched through the first inning, filling in as Jackson went through his preparations.

“I think I still would have been ready to go,” Jackson said. “But they didn’t want to rush it.”

The warm-up did little to help, and the ensuing carnage from his eight-run second inning fed into a 14-2 blowout in Oakland’s favor.

The pitcher said the GPS runaround didn’t make for an ideal morning. 

“A crazy, crazy way to start a day,” Jackson said.

On the plus side, it can only go up from here, right? Jackson can’t do worse than missing his start and sliding in late to blow the game. He’d have to show up during the seventh-inning stretch with a six-pack and a surly goat to outdo himself after this one—a tall order even for a perpetually frustrating quantity such as Jackson. 

Let’s focus on the good news. Cubs super prospect Kris Bryant is living up to his hype thus far this spring and nuking balls out of the ballpark with frightening regularity.

It’s all about balance, guys—screwballs and golden boys in equal measure.

Dan is on Twitter. He’s fallen prey to GPS deception before.