CHICAGO \u2014 The Chicago Cubs met the newest \u201cworst team in baseball history\u201d Monday at Wrigley Field, and not surprisingly, it turned out to be a good day to play the Colorado Rockies.<\/p>\n
Despite managing only four hits, the Cubs beat the Rockies 3-1 before a Memorial Day crowd of 40,171, riding the arm of starter Jameson Taillon and the bullpen on an unseasonably cool but sunny afternoon.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019re finding a way to win different types of games,\u201d Taillon said. \u201cWe can win the slugfest, we can win the small ball game \u2026 It\u2019s good right now. Obviously a lot of year ahead, but it\u2019s a nice mix. We can win in a lot of different ways, which is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taillon (4-3) allowed one run over 6 1\/3 innings, and four relievers finished it off, with Daniel Palencia registering his third save.<\/p>\n
This is a must-win series for the Cubs, though only because the Rockies have yet to win a series in their first 17 attempts, and it would be somewhat embarrassing to be their first victim. The Rockies are 9-45 after Monday\u2019s loss, leaving them on pace to finish 27-135, which would obliterate the 2024 White Sox\u2019s record of 121 losses \u2014 one more than the 1962 New York Mets.<\/p>\n
The Rockies are now 2-16 in series openers, 0-6 on Mondays and have lost 25 of their last 28 games. They can lose in any kind of weather, and at any altitude.<\/p>\n
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The Cubs, meanwhile, have gone in the opposite direction, which suggests a series sweep should be the real goal. They\u2019re 10-3 in their 21-game stretch of facing sub-.500 teams, doing what good teams do.<\/p>\n
Memorial Day is the first real milepost of the six-month regular season, and in Chicago it also serves as the unofficial start of tourist season at Wrigley Field. Jason Bateman, Austin Butler, Jeremy Allen White and David Harbour were among the tourists on hand Monday, though White has probably earned honorary Chicagoan status by now from \u201cShameless\u201d and \u201cThe Bear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thanks to fans who just want to go to Wrigley, a mediocre Cubs team can draw well any summer. But a very good Cubs team will see packed houses every game from Memorial Day through September, and this team is trending toward the latter, with a 33-21 record and one of the game\u2019s top offenses so far.<\/p>\n
Imagine if the wind starts blowing out once in a while, which it typically does in the summer. It was blowing in at Wrigley on Monday for the 16th time in 24 games, and has blown out on only four occasions. The Cubs are 4-0 in those games.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got a lot of guys producing at a really good level, it\u2019s tough to get through parts of our lineup for sure,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re making it tough in a lot of innings for teams, and you\u2019re going to get results eventually by that. And you see that by lack of strikeouts, of runners on base, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Cubs came in averaging over six runs per game and faced a pitcher in Carson Palmquist with an 11.88 ERA, a stiff in-blowing wind on a cool, 56-degree afternoon turned out to be the equalizer.<\/p>\n
The Cubs scratched across a first-inning run on Dansby Swanson\u2019s RBI groundout, and Taillon held the Rockies without a baserunner until two outs in the fifth, when Mickey Moniak hit a game-tying, 399-foot home run to right. In the bottom of the fourth, Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a similar shot, but it was a tad too high and was held in by the wind, landing in the glove of Moniak for a routine out.<\/p>\n
But Kyle Tucker\u2019s run-scoring single in the fifth put the Cubs ahead again, and Taillon got out of a jam in the sixth, aided by Nico Hoerner nailing a runner at the plate on a fielder\u2019s choice grounder.<\/p>\n
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Counsell removed Taillon with one out in the seventh after only 82 pitches, and turned it over to his bullpen, which had a 1.25 ERA over its previous 10 games, seeming to solve the team\u2019s most glaring weakness. Caleb Thielbar, Ryan Pressly and Drew Pomeranz \u2014 the thirtysomething trio of middle relievers \u2014 have helped Counsell\u2019s blood pressure of late. Palencia, who has a closer\u2019s mentality and a 101 mph fastball, looks like a bona fide homegrown stopper, something the Cubs haven\u2019t had in years, except for a few months of Adbert Alzolay closing in \u201923.<\/p>\n
Tucker added a sacrifice fly in the seventh on a hit to left fielder Jordan Beck, originally ruled a dropped ball that turned into a double play. But the umpires converged and decided Beck had caught the ball and dropped it while transferring it out of the glove, negating the double play and making it 3-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a one-man show,\u201d Taillon said of Tucker. \u201cBut it definitely helps to have that guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rockies play two more games against the Cubs this series on their road to nowhere. Entering Monday\u2019s game, the winning percentage disparity between the Cubs (.611) and Rockies (.167) was minus-.444. Admittedly, I\u2019ve never heard of a stat called winning percentage disparity before. But it turns out the Rockies\u2019 win over the New York Yankees on Friday tied for the second-largest winning percentage disparity (minus-.452) for a team at least 50 games into a season in the expansion era. Beating the Cubs would be close to that monumental achievement.<\/p>\n
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Those of us who haven\u2019t blotted the \u201924 Sox out of our membranes can attest that the Rockies are substantially worse for one big reason \u2014 there is no Garrett Crochet on the staff to save them every fifth day. But before the \u201925 Rockies can officially wipe the \u201924 Sox out of the record books, they still have to play the games.<\/p>\n
This unique baseball record must be earned on the field, as the Sox did so ably last year. The Rockies look like they have it in them to do it, but some bad luck obviously is needed, as the \u201924 Sox proved. Trading their best player, shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, might be the one move that puts the Rockies over the top.<\/p>\n
But no matter how the season unfolds, the Cubs and Rockies will be back Tuesday night, where Cubs rookie Cade Horton will be seeking his third win.<\/p>\n
The Rockies are 0-6 on Tuesdays \u2026 just in case you were wondering.<\/p>\n
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