The Rockies offense, long lying dormant and rumored dead, erupted for 11 runs at Wrigley Field on Wednesday afternoon en route to an 11-2 pummeling of the Chicago Cubs to take the series.
TACO’S!
In the first five games of the Rockies’ current road trip they combined to score seven runs and before last night’s 3-1 victory they were averaging one (1) run per game. But unlike Tuesday’s win, the Rockies managed to get more hits than just solo homers. Nolan Arenado hit a two-run shot in the first, Charlie Blackmon singled one home in the second, and even Daniel Castro drove in a run on a groundout in the third.
Trevor Story and Chris Iannetta took Yu Darvish deep in the fifth to make it 6-1, making it a more successful offensive output than the previous four games combined.
Then the eighth inning happened.
The Great Defensive Backfire
With two on and one out, Cubs manager Joe Maddon double-switched Wilson Contreras to the outfield to bring in Luke Farrell to face Nolan Arenado. He promptly took Farrell deep to left center for his second home run of the day and third in two days to make it 9-2. Gerardo Parra followed up a Trevor Story single with a single to left—that got by Wilson Contreras and allowed Story to score from first and Parra to end up at third. A Chris Iannetta groundout made it 11-2.
Too clever by half, Joe.
Tyler Anderson
It’s easy to see an 11-2 scoreline and attribute a lot of success to the offense. But that would miss just how dominant Tyler Anderson was Wednesday afternoon. He pitched seven innings, walking one, and allowing just three hits, including a solo home run each to Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo. On his 100th pitch of the game he struck out Addison Russel to end the eighth, his ninth of the afternoon. It was by far his best outing on the young season and a great bounce back after his injury shortened start in Miami last Friday.
Looking ahead
After an off-day on Thursday the Rockies head to Queens to take on the—adjusts glasses wouldn’t you know it—first place New York Mets. Germán Márquez takes the mound for the Rockies and Zach Wheeler will start for the Mets. First pitch is set for 5:10 pm MT.