Cubs 6, Rockies 3: Kyle Hendricks baffles the Rockies

The Colorado Rockies had their eight-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday night. The Chicago Cubs rode a strong start and a couple long home runs to a 6-3 win at Wrigley Field.

Soft-tossed to death

The Rockies struggled to put together good at-bats against Kyle Hendricks. He made some mistakes and the Rockies made him pay for those mistakes. They put together a couple mini rallies to score runs and Daniel Murphy hit a home run. But ultimately Hendricks was always able to maintain control.

Hendricks went seven innings, allowing three runs and striking out 10 hitters. You hate to see that big strikeout number to start a road trip after a long home stand, but I’m willing to chalk this one up to a typical Hendricks start and not start worrying about the Coors hangover yet. Lots of painted corners, lots of soft outs and lots of painted corners.

Mistakes from Hoffman

Hoffman gave up a couple runs with two outs. One ball was not hit hard, as Hendricks blooped one to no man’s land to score a run. One ball was hit very hard, as Kyle Schwarber hit a home run that still hasn’t landed.

Hoffman once again had a lot of good moments in what was mostly a competitive start. There are still some rough edges, however, and things like sloppy command and mistakes with two outs remind us as much.

The final damage was done when Hoffman piped one to Javier Baez with a runner on. That also resulted in a long home run and put the Cubs up 5-2.

CarGo gets his former teammates

In his second game on the Cubs, Carlos González smacked an RBI double over Ian Desmond’s head. Desmond came in on a ball that went over his head, so it was partially his fault, but credit to CarGo for barreling one. He also drove in that sixth insurance run with a sacrifice fly. It was altogether strange to see him in another uniform against the Rockies.

Looking ahead

The Rockies play the Cubs again on Wednesday with German Márquez on the mound against Yu Darvish.