A Tip of the Recap – 8/21 (Rockies 11, Cubs 4)
Cubs Record: 78-45 (1st place in NL Central, 12 games ahead of Cardinals)
W: Jorge De La Rosa 8-7, 5.07 ERA
L: Jason Hammel 13-6, 3.07 ERA
There is only one way to sum up the Cubs road trip to Colorado: rocky.
They may have been okay in game two of the series yesterday, but games one and three were just plain ugly.
The Cubs sent Jason Hammel to the mound Sunday in the midst of the best stretch of his career. He was riding a 22-inning scoreless streak that ended immediately as the Rockies scored seven runs in the first inning. It started with back-to-back singles by David Dahl and DJ LeMahieu. One out later, Nolan Arenado, who has the second most RBI in the big leagues, launched a three-run homer to put the Rockies on the board.
The inning seemed never-ending as the Cubs would commit three errors and give up a total of seven runs on six hits to dig themselves in a 7-0 deficit.
Fast forward to the bottom of the 4th when Nolan Arenado struck again. It was another three-run bomb, his 32nd of the season, making it a 10-0 ball game.
Despite a relatively quiet Cubs offense, shortstop Addison Russell launched his 16th and 17th home runs of the season.
The score was 10-2 heading into the 8th until DJ LeMahieu added on a run with a solo-shot, putting the Rockies up by nine.
In the 9th, the Cubs tried to get something going. They were able to score two runs but that obviously wasn’t enough. They went on to lose game three 11-4 and lose the series.
The Good
Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa pitched eight strong innings, giving up only two runs on four hits. The Cubs really couldn’t get anything going against him as nobody other than Addison Russell got past second base.
The Rockies offense showed no mercy, scoring 11 runs on 14 hits. They took advantage of the Cubs’ first inning miscues and put the game away early. The Coloradan who hurt the Cubs most today was Nolan Arenado, who went 4-for-5 with six RBI.
The Bad
Jason Hammel gave up ten runs, and despite only six of them being earned, he just had a bad outing. He could only get through 3 1/3 innings before the bullpen took over. Hammel certainly isn’t the first pitcher victimized by the Rockies offense. They managed to knock Steven Strasburg around for nine runs in under two innings earlier this week.
The Cubs offense wasted the few opportunities they had. In the 4th, they had two men on with one out, but they walked away empty handed as Ben Zobrist wrapped into a double play. They were able to get something brewing in the 9th, but it wasn’t enough to erase a nine-run deficit.
The Ugly
ERRORS ON ERRORS ON ERRORS. The Cubs aren’t a bad defensive team, but you’d never know that from Sunday’s game. In 122 games, they have committed only 70 errors, which puts them right in the middle of the pack at 15th out of the 30 teams. Unfortunately, today was just one of those days that they could not control the ball defensively. There were four errors in the game, one each by Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Willson Contreras, and Dexter Fowler.
Coming Attractions
The Cubs head to San Diego for a three-game series against the Padres. Tomorrow’s game will be at 9:10 p.m. CT and the Cubs will send Jon Lester to the mound in his first career start in San Diego. He will be faced by former Cub Edwin Jackson.