Rough inning dooms Rockies in strong showing by Cubs

DENVER – A rough second inning cost the Colorado Rockies in a 8-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs. The two teams split Tuesday’s doubleheader which was pitched by two rookies for the Rockies. In the nightcap Kyle Freeland had the ball and was good, again, his defense was not.

A leadoff single by the 26th man Jeimer Candelario coupled with two consecutive men reaching on errors led to the dreaded big inning. When the damage was done the Cubs had brought across five runs, the Rockies had already started to warm their bullpen and the home team had lost all their momentum from the socking they had handed out in game one.

The Rockies tried to tag back in the second but didn’t bring any across due to the lack of a big hit. The Rockies would only get one more hit off of John Lackey the rest of the evening as he dealt. Finishing with 10 strikeouts in seven innings pitched, the Cubs got back above water with their roughed up bullpen.

Freeland bounded back terrifically from the Cubs batting around. Striking out the next three straight and not surrendering a hit the rest of the night. His final line was six innings pitched, four hits, four walks six strikeouts, five runs and three were earned. His ERA went up a bit from the crazy 2.65 but his groundball rate increased to an MLB best.

The Cubs added two more in the eighth off of Mike Dunn before they handed the club handed the ball to one of their top pitching prospects Jeff Hoffman, who was the 26th man today, to finish the eighth.

Hoffman struck out Ben Zobrist to get out a jam then pitched the ninth including a second strikeout, totaling one and one thirds innings. He did serve up a home run to 2016 NL MVP Kris Bryant.

Rockies added one in the eighth after a two out error by Jon Jay let Nolan Arenado aboard, Ian Desmond drove him home.