Cubs come out of hibernation, evade Rockies sweep

With the battle for rotation spots getting tighter and tighter as Jon Gray nears his return, Colorado Rockies rookie Antonio Senzatela kept up the trend of young guys making the decision nearly impossible in more ways than one.

The Chicago Cubs, reeling after losing three straight to these Rockies, jumped all over Senzatela in the first, plating four runs, the big blows coming on a double from Anthony Rizzo and a three-run blast off the bat of Ben Zobrist.

The first inning has been problematic for the 22-year-old so far this season. His ERA in the first frame now stands a 7.62. Interestingly, this may be an argument that he could use some more development time to iron out some things but also a pretty strong argument against throwing him into the bullpen in a one-inning role.

Of course, the counterpoint to any kind of demotion came in what Senzatela did next, which is why his record sparkles. Whatever you may think of the pitcher win/loss statistic, Senza has found a way to not just win most of the games he pitches in but also almost never loses. Sunday’s game fit more in the latter category. He kept his team in the game, didn’t lose it, and even sat down seven straight at one point, not allowing another run over the next three innings.

He finished his outing by striking out the side in the fourth to escape a first-and-third, nobody out jam.

But the laws of long seasons caught up to the Rockies on this day. Though, they would test the limits.

Colorado finally strung together some offense in the top of the fifth. Tony Wolters led off with a hustle double and Raimel Tapia, in maybe the best at-bat he has ever had at the MLB level, worked a walk off the bench after falling behind 1-2. Suddenly, Jake Arrieta seemed to lose his command, plunking Charlie Blackmon and then walking DJ LeMahieu on four consecutive pitches to bring in a run.

Carlos Gonzalez strode to the plate with confidence given the command issues but struck out looking on some borderline calls (it’s been a story this whole series) and was ejected for the first time since 2011 for arguing balls and strikes. That’s a telling stat for how Colorado has felt about the umpiring this series. Later in the game, Bryant was unhappy with a strike-three call and argues (though quietly) as he walked away. He was not ejected.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Mark Reynolds delivered a clutch line drive into left field, scoring Tapia, chasing Arrieta from the game. Ian Desmond greeted Carl Edwards Jr. with an even-more-clutch groundball single up the middle, scoring a pair and tying the game at four. He, too, showed tremendous resilience after falling behind 0-2 in the count.

Addison Russell retook the lead for Chicago with a line drive home run off of Jordan Lyles in the bottom of the sixth, his fourth of the season. Kyle Schwarber made it back-to-back, giving the Cubs a 6-4 lead and chasing Lyles from the game … and maybe from the team.

The Rockies mop-up guy has had ugly numbers for most of 2017 — though, he was on a decent stretch recently — but honestly hadn’t cost the team much given his role. Now that they are deeper into the season and the bullpen has been worked enough that he had to come into a tie game, it’s clear the time has come to upgrade.

Chad Qualls gave up a solo home run to make it 7-4 Cubs. Qualls, too, has been unspectacular, to say the least, since signing in Colorado.

One has to wonder if the Rockies might soon dip into their pool of minor league talent — Carlos Estevez, Sam Moll, Matt Carisiti, Austin House, or Harrison Musgrave — to take some spots in the bullpen. Or even if a trade could soon be in the works to bolster the relief corp. Either way, there should be some kind of plan, and it’s time to start putting it into action. In the long scheme of things, one loss is nothing to overreact to, on the other hand, with how tight this division is (and how good the Rockies appear to be) every game counts. And this was a winnable one.

The Rockies got a run with two outs in the ninth on singles from Blackmon and LeMahieu to make it 7-5 but Alexi Amarista popped out to end it.

Colorado fell to 41-24 but will maintain their lead in the National League West. The loss broke a seven-game win streak.