The Colorado Rockies were defeated by the Chicago Cubs 9-7 Sunday afternoon at Coors Field.
Prior to the game, Colorado announced they had recalled youngsters David Dahl and Noel Cuevas from Triple-A and placed outfielder Carlos Gonzalez on the 10-day disabled list with a right hamstring strain — retroactive to April 19 — and optioned outfielder Mike Tauchman to Triple-A Albuquerque. Also, outfielder Gerardo Parra began to serve his four-game suspension for his involvement in the benches-clearing brawl against the San Diego Padres earlier in the season and this certainly threw a wrench into how Colorado built their line up.
On the mound, German Marquez took the baseball for Colorado, looking to pitch his team to a series victory.
Marquez recorded the first two outs of the ballgame with ease before things started to fall out of whack. Marquez missed high and inside to Cubs star Kris Bryant, hitting him in the head with a 96mph fastball. Chicago would utilize the baserunner and do damage in the inning. Following the hit by pitch, Anthony Rizzo reached base on a single with the Cubs then scoring their first run via an RBI single hit by Tommy La Stella. La Stella, Kyle Schwarber, and Victor Caratini strung together three consecutive RBI singles in the first inning to give Chicago an early 3-0 lead.
The Cubs tacked on an additional run in the second inning on a solo home run from Javier Baez and followed that up with a pair of runs in the third inning off the bat of outfielder Jason Heyward who drove home La Stella and Cartini with a one-out RBI single to right field.
The Rockies were gifted their initial two runs of the afternoon in the third inning. DJ LeMahieu and Charlie Blackmon both reached base and scored on a triple — hit by shortstop Trevor Story. The triple started as a routine fly ball to Heyward which would have ended the inning if caught, but Heyward lost the ball in the Colorado sun and it dropped behind him, allowing two runs to score for Colorado.
Colorado was able to pull within two runs of Chicago in the fifth inning following back-to-back home runs from Blackmon and Nolan Arenado, but were unable to tame Chicago’s offense as the Cubs answered by scoring three in the 7th inning off of relief pitcher Mike Dunn.
Dunn allowed a leadoff walk to Schwarber who advanced to second base on a single hit by Heyward. Cubs pitcher Steve Cisheck reached base safely on a bunt to load the bases. The Cubs then scored two runs on a groundout to the pitcher hit by Albert Almora Jr. An additional pair of runs was tacked on by Chicago after Baez ripped an RBI double to left field.
Dunn was charged with three runs and two hits, striking out two batters and walking one.
The Rockies once again managed to claw back into the game in the bottom half of the 7th inning. Blackmon hit a one-out single to left field which was followed by back-to-back walks issued by the Cubs to load the bases for the Rockies. Colorado then scored a run on a groundout to the pitcher hit by Ryan McMahon and proceeded to score two more runs when David Dahl reached base on an infield single, and a throwing error was made by pitcher Carl Edwards Jr. making the score 9-7. The Cubs however escaped the jam after Ian Desmond grounded out to the pitcher with a runner in scoring position.
Both sides worked a clean 8th inning, and the Rockies managed to load the bases in the bottom of the 9th inning, but Arenado was thrown out trying to swipe home on a ball that got past the catcher to end the ballgame and crown the Cubs series victors.
NEXT UP:
The Rockies will welcome the San Diego Padres to Coors Field for a three-game series starting tomorrow. Chad Bettis will square off against Bryan Mitchell with first pitch set for 6:40 MDT.
