The Cubs began a series against the worst team in baseball, the Rockies, at Wrigley Field Monday afternoon.
These types of series can be called “traps,” in other words, trapping the better team into thinking it’ll be easy.
The Cubs won 3-1 against a surprisingly tenacious Rockies team. It was the eighth time in 26 road games for the Rockies where they’d allowed three runs or fewer, and their record in those games is 2-6. (Comparison point: The Cubs have allowed three runs or fewer in 13 road games so far this year, and their record in those games is 12-1, losing only to the Dodgers 3-0 in Los Angeles.)
Anyway, back to this one. The Cubs didn’t waste any time getting on the board. Ian Happ led off with a walk and went to third one out later on a double by Seiya Suzuki.
This ground out by Dansby Swanson scored Happ [VIDEO].
Jameson Taillon was mowing down Rockies hitters, even as the Cubs also went down fairly easily through the fourth. The Cubs had only two further baserunners through four, and Taillon retired the first 14 Rockies he faced before Mickey Moniak homered. You know, it just wouldn’t be a Taillon start without a homer served up.
One of those first 14 outs was this terrific play by Matt Shaw [VIDEO].
Shaw might not be a natural third baseman, but he’s playing pretty well there and definitely has the arm for the position. In fact, that was the last of the 14 outs before Moniak’s homer.
So it’s tied 1-1 going to the bottom of the fifth. Again, the Cubs capitalized on a leadoff walk, this one by Shaw. Reese McGuire then sacrificed Shaw to second. About that, from BCB’s JohnW53:
Reese McGuire’s fifth-inning sacrifice bunt, in his second game as a Cub, tied him for the second-most sac bunts among Cubs this season. Miguel Amaya and Dansby Swanson also have one. Pete Crow-Armstrong leads, with three.
Happ grounded out, but a single by Kyle Tucker scored Shaw to give the Cubs the lead back [VIDEO].
Taillon got into a bit of trouble in the sixth with a pair of hard-hit singles that put Rockies on first and second. A sac bunt — the second of the game! — moved the runners up to second and third.
The Cubs drew the infield in and a ground ball was hit right to Nico Hoerner, who threw Jacob Stallings out at the plate. Wish I could show that to you, but no one seems to have that video clip available. Trust me, it was a nice play.
Taillon was left in to face Brenton Doyle to start the seventh. He struck out Doyle for his seventh K of the day and then departed to a nice round of applause. Here are Taillon’s seven Ks [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Taillon’s outing [VIDEO].
Caleb Thielbar relieved Taillon and walked the first hitter he faced, but got out of the inning with a double-play ball.
The Cubs scored an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh. Once again, a walk was involved, this one a one-out walk by Shaw. He went to second on a throwing error by Rockies pitcher Juan Mejia, and right there is one of the biggest reasons the Rockies have such a poor record. The hit could have been an easy double play or at least a force, and instead the Cubs had two runners on with one out.
Happ singled to load the bases and that brought up Tucker [VIDEO].
You can see the third-base umpire signal “in play,” and the Rockies thought they had a force at third and got out of the inning tagging everyone in sight.
The umpires conferred and ruled that Rockies left fielder Jordan Beck had caught the ball, but dropped it on the transfer. That allowed Shaw to score the Cubs’ third run, with two runners left on base. Unfortunately, Suzuki struck out to end the inning.
Ryan Pressly entered to throw the eighth, and got the first two outs on three pitches. That’s good! And then he issued a walk and gave up a single, and that brought Drew Pomeranz in to face Ryan McMahon. Pomeranz got McMahon to fly to right to end the inning.
Here’s another story that sums up the Rockies. Zach Agnos threw a 1-2-3 eighth for Colorado. Standing on the LF patio near me was a guy wearing an Agnos jersey and cheering loudly. I walked over and learned that he’s one of Agnos’ best friends. He said to me, “I don’t even care about the game, we have to cheer for good individual performances like that.”
Daniel Palencia was given the save opportunity again and retired the Rockies 1-2-3 in the ninth for his third save. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].
The Rockies played reasonably well… except when they didn’t. And the Cubs took advantage of misplays and walks to score enough runs to win the game. Oh, and the seventh-inning run added to the Cubs’ late-inning run: They’ve now outscored their opponents 54-3 from the sixth inning on over their last 10 games, and are 8-2 in those games.
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
The Cubs moved to a season-high 12 games over .500 with the win, and the Orioles, who are having a miserable season, did the Cubs a favor Monday by defeating the Cardinals 5-2. That moves the Cubs three games ahead of St. Louis in the NL Central.
The Cubs go for the series win Tuesday evening at Wrigley Field. Cade Horton will start for the Cubs and Germán Márquez goes for the Rockies. Game time Tuesday is 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.