Rockies 9, Cubs 6: C.J. Cron and Alan Trejo lift the team to victory

The Rockies offense exploded and the bullpen bent, but didn’t break. They were victorious over the Northsiders for the second straight night and will look for another series win tomorrow!

Antonio Cien-zatela

Antonio Senzatela started his 100th career game tonight. He started off strong with a 1-2-3 first, although it was an unconventional 1-2-3 inning. He got Rafael Ortega to ground out 3-1 and then gave up a single to Jonathan Villar. Willson Contreras flied to right, but then Senzatela threw his first career pick-off to end the inning:

“[That was the] first time in all my career!” Senzatela chuckled postgame. “Even as a minor leaguer, it was my first time. Really, the first time ever.

“We were just working on that in spring training,” he continued, “so the first time I picked off, I got it. That’s nice!”

Senzatela would get roughed up for seven hits, but only one run would come around to score — an RBI single by Jonathan Villar in the third inning to score Patrick Wisdom. The right-hander would go on to pitch five innings and allow just the one run on seven hits with two strikeouts and zero walks.

JOE! JOE! JOE!

Speaking of career firsts, Connor Joe hit his first career triple in the third inning to score Dom Nuñez:

Joe would finish the night 2-for-4 with a triple, double, walk, strikeout and flyout.

Get your Cronsaws ready!

C.J. Cron was cooking tonight. He joined the hit parade in the third inning by launching a 466-foot moon shot to left-center (the third-longest in the majors so far) to score Kris Bryant, who had reached on a fielder’s choice that had previously scored Connor Joe:

Two at-bats later in the seventh, Cron did it again! This time, he hit a 423-footer to left to put the Rockies up 9-5:

“I was just trying to put a good spin on the baseball,” Cron said postgame. “The first one was a little be up for me, I don’t usually hit that pitch, but I got to it on time and the other just went.”

This marked the 14th multi-homer game for Cron, with his last coming on August 8, 2021 against the Miami Marlins. The 466-footer was also the second-longest in Cron’s career.

“I think I can do a little better,” he added.

Bend, don’t break

The Rockies bullpen has been incredible so far, allowing just three runs across 3 ¹⁄₃ innings of relief entering tonight. Unfortunately, it all fell apart for Jhoulys Chacín, who yielded four runs (three earned) in the seventh. The unearned run came from an error by shortstop Alan Trejo, but luckily he made up for it with two hits and two RBI in the earlier innings.

Justin Lawrence came in the eighth and got out the first two Cubs he faced. But then he walked Seiya Suzuki and gave up an RBI triple to Jason Heyward. Fortunately, Patrick Wisdom grounded to third to end the inning.

Daniel Bard pitched the ninth. He allowed a hit to Villar, but induced two groundouts before then and struck out Willson Contreras to end the game. Bard earned his fourth save of 2022.

Up Next

The Rockies finish will finish the four-game set against the Northsiders tomorrow. It’ll be a battle of the Southpaws as Austin Gomber will toe the rubber against Drew Smyly. First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m. MT.