Cubs Still Solid Despite Loss to Rockies

COMMENTARY | I'm pretty happy about the Cubs' first road trip of the 2011 season. The Cubs lost the final game of their three-game series with the Colorado Rockies 9-5, yet managed to end the road trip 4-5 and ended the sizzling Rockies' seven-game winning streak in the process. It wasn't a bad job for a team hobbling along without two starting pitchers.

I'm using as my reference article one written by Carrie Muskat at the MLB.com website titled "Cubs drop finale after Rockies late rally."

Ryan Dempster was the pitcher. He got nailed in the bottom of the first with four runs, though Chicago got the lead back for him in the fourth, which he promptly lost in the bottom of that inning. Dempster didn't have his best stuff, and of course it is never easy pitching in Denver against a team as good as Colorado.

The Rockies scored in three innings, the first, fourth and eighth, but had four runs in the first and eighth while the Cubs scored in five yet could only muster five runs-the difference really was the long ball with a man on base along with some infield hits. Among those was an infield hit in the eighth by Ryan Spillborghs followed by a double that should have been caught by Kosuke Fukudome. Dexter Fowler hit a double that was the actual game-winner.

Earlier in the game, Seth Smith hit a two-run home run.

Usually when a team gets scores like the Rockies did, you can trace it to some sloppy plays. In the eighth, Fukudome overran a fly ball and losing pitcher Marcos Mateo couldn't cleanly field an infield hit.

Earlier in the game, third-baseman Aramis Ramirez didn't field a ball cleanly and allowed a runner to reach first who should have been thrown out.

Despite the flaws, the Cubs were in the game until the bottom of the eighth -- in part because Starlin Castro remains red-hot with a .418 batting average and .582-slugging percentage that is amazing for a 21-year-old man.

The Cubs are doing alright. They are just one game below .500, despite playing nine of 15 games on the road and only six at home. They are, as mentioned, without two starting pitchers and while they have a couple of hitters doing quite well, as a team they certainly haven't hit their stride yet.

I'll take where we are so far with a smile.

The San Diego Padres come to Wrigley Field this evening.

References:

MLB.com Website, Carrie Muskat, "Cubs drop finale after Rockies late rally"

MLB.com Website, "Starlin Castro Statistics"