The Cubs defeated the Rockies 4-3 Saturday night, and the score should not have been that close.
The Cubs had nine hits, including two doubles and a triple. They drew six walks, had two batters hit by pitches and another reach on an error.
That’s 18 baserunners! That should result in more than four runs. But the Cubs hit into three double plays, two of which ended innings where they had excellent scoring chances.
Nevertheless, with shutdown relief the Cubs made those four runs hold up for a nail-biting
victory.
After a brief rain delay before play began. the Cubs got to work in the first inning. With one out, Kyle Tucker walked and Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ singled to load the bases. Now, how many times did we see the Cubs do this in San Francisco and fail to score? (Don’t answer that, it’s a rhetorical question.)
This time, they did score. Nico Hoerner’s sac fly scored Tucker [VIDEO].
The Cubs loaded the bases again in the second inning, this time with two out. Dansby Swanson singled with one out, and one out later stole second. Michael Busch and Tucker were hit by pitches back-to-back (no intent there, Rockies starter McCade Brown was just wild) to load the bases. But Suzuki grounded out to end the inning.
The Rockies tied the game in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Warming Bernabel singled. Yanquiel Fernandez then singled and got caught in a rundown, but Bernabel scored [VIDEO].
The game remained 1-1 until the fifth, helped in part by this double play turned by the Cubs in the fourth [VIDEO].
Tucker led off the fifth with a double and Suzuki walked. Ian Happ doubled in Tucker [VIDEO].
Suzuki stopped at third on that hit, and scored on Carson Kelly’s sac fly to make it 3-1 [VIDEO].
The Cubs increased their lead to 4-1 in the sixth. With one out, Busch tripled — missing a home run by maybe a foot. Tucker’s single scored Busch [VIDEO].
A single, RBI triple by Mickey Moniak and sac fly by Hunter Goodman plated two runs for the Rockies in the sixth off Javier Assad to make the score 4-3. Assad had a good outing, though, allowing three runs in six innings. He struck out just one, but overall helped keep the score close. Here’s more on Assad’s outing [VIDEO].
So it was up to the Cubs bullpen to hold this precarious one-run lead, especially when the Cubs hit into yet another double play in the eighth.
Andrew Kittredge threw a 1-2-3 seventh on just 11 pitches (eight strikes). Brad Keller was even more efficient, recording three outs on just eight pitches.
Then it was up to Daniel Palencia, who didn’t have a good day in his most recent outing Thursday afternoon in San Francisco.
This time, Palencia took care of three Rockies hitters in order. He struck out Brenton Doyle to begin the ninth, then made this nice defensive play for the second out [VIDEO].
Palencia realized he didn’t have time to flip to Busch on that play, so instead reached out and tagged Ezequiel Tovar out.
Here’s the final out, a strikeout of Kyle Karros on a rising 100 mile per hour fastball [VIDEO].
Here are some postgame comments by Happ [VIDEO].
The Cubs return to 20 games over .500 at 78-58. They still trail the Brewers by 6.5 games in the NL Central, as Milwaukee beat Toronto Saturday. The Cubs’ lead in the wild card race remains at two games over the Padres, five over the Mets and increases to 10 games over the Reds, who lost to the Cardinals Saturday.
The Cubs go for the series sweep Sunday afternoon at Coors Field. Matthew Boyd will start for the Cubs and Tanner Gordon will be the Rockies starter. Game time is 2:10 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.