DJ LeMahieu clobbers the Cubs, Rox keep on rollin

The Colorado Rockies just a’ keep on rollin’. They’ve now won five in a row and three straight against teams that were in the World Series a year ago after defeating the Chicago Cubs by a score of 4-1 Thursday night.

Tyler Chatwood continues to be one of the best pitchers in baseball when away from his home ballpark, keeping the defending champs to just one run on one swing from Kris Bryant in the first inning. Other than that, he was spectacular.

The Rockies offense all came in one two-out rally in the second.

It all began innocuously enough. After Jon Lester struck out Trevor Story and Ian Desmond with relative ease, Tony Wolters put up his signature fight at the plate, hitting a soft grounder toward third base that Bryan was unable to convert into an out. It was a difficult play to be sure, but one Rockies fans have seen their own third baseman make so many times, it was difficult not to note the juxtaposition. Especially considering what followed.

Lester seemed to lose focus for just a moment with his counterpart at the plate and Chatwood lined a soft single into left field to keep the inning alive. Charlie Blackmon fought off a tough inside pitch and wound up with a good-luck double into shallow left field. Turns out, Coors Field is not the only ballpark that allows such things. It’s been that kind of season, though, everything is coming up Blackmon, and he has earned it.

He now sits at 85 hits, still comfortably leading MLB, 47 runs scored, which is tied for second, and 50 RBI which is good for third.

Still, all the Rockies had done with this wacky little two-out rally was tie the ballgame against a great pitcher who was one strike away from shutting the whole thing down. As it turned out, he was also one swing away from disaster. Former Chicago Cub (practically given away to the Rockies in a trade) DJ LeMahieu lined an opposite field, three-run home run into the basket. It didn’t go 480 feet like a now-famous foul ball, but it put three runs on the board and had to feel cathartic for the second baseman who has been less productive at the plate in 2017 than he has come to expect from himself.

Nolan Arenado picked up a single right after that, but the Rockies wouldn’t get another base runner … for the rest of the game. Literally, the entirety of the offensive production in a big win came from a roughly five-minute outburst.

But that wouldn’t matter because Chatwood was his usual awesome road-self.

He threw some truly filthy pitches including this 92 mph slider to Kyle Schwarber in the fifth, arguably one of the best pitches he has thrown all season:

Yooo Tyler Chatwood just threw a nasty 92 mph back foot slider to strikeout Kyle Schwarber. pic.twitter.com/IZF8uF6CoP

— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) June 9, 2017

Of course, he got a little help from the best defender in the game who seems to be inventing new ways to play defense on a nightly basis:

Best in the biz.#NolanBeingNolan ? pic.twitter.com/TYsg9GHtTC

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) June 9, 2017

Scott Oberg needed some help on a nifty double play to escape the seventh but Jake McGee remained as dominant as ever with a 1-2-3 eighth.

Greg Holland walked Anthony Rizzo to begin the ninth but got Ben Zobrist to line out, Jason Heyward and Wilson Contreras to ground out, recording his 23rd consecutive save of the season.

Colorado moved to 39-23 on the season, 22-10 on the road, and remain in first place in the NL West by two games. A season ago, the Rockies were 39-47 on this date. They moved to 16 games over .500 for the first time since September 18, 2010. That’s the most games above .500 they achieved that season.