Rockies-Cubs Series Grades: Pitching treads water until offense catches fire

The Colorado Rockies woke from their Miami nightmare to find themselves a whole new team in the Windy City of Chicago.

The Cubs came in on a five-game winning streak and still have high aspirations with an uber-talented roster that one could argue is as good if not better than the one that earned them a World Series Championship just two years ago.

But the Rockies pitching remained on point and the offense finally found a bit of a rhythm, hitting seven home runs in the final two games.

Here are our individual grades for the 2-1 series win for the Rockies in Chicago:

Nolan Arenado (A): Coming off his worst series of the season in Miami, the Rockies star third baseman turned it around in a big way in Chicago, going 5-for-14 with two home runs, two doubles, and seven RBI. That’s the kind of run production he has been looking for all season.

Charlie Blackmon (B): He went 3-for-9 with a home run and five walks. He also stole a base, knocked in three runs, and scored three times. Little bit of everything from Blackmon in this series.

Noel Cuevas (B): Was tough not to go a little bit higher with this grade, seeing as Cuevas hit .833 (5-for-6) in the series. If this is a sign of things to come, his ability to handle left-handed pitching and play a capable outfield could end up being exactly what the Colorado Rockies have desperately needed. But in the context of this one series, all of his hits were singles and he only scored once, in part because of a key baserunning mistake in the first game.

Gerardo Parra (B-): One biggest difference for the Rockies offense was getting Parra into the mix with three base hits, in 10 at-bats, two of them doubles. He also stole a base and scored twice.

Daniel Castro (B-/C+): Judging based solely on performance, Castro’s 2-for-12, three RBI performance at the plate, coupled with good defense at second, was probably not worthy of an especially lofty grade. But recognizing that he made his debut with a new team at a spot that has been held by one of the cornerstones of the franchise and immediately made himself a factor on both sides of the ball in some important wins pushes it up in my book.

Trevor Story (D+): Story went 2-for-12 but did smash one incredibly long home run. The one home run was his only RBI but he did draw a walk and score twice.

Carlos Gonzalez (D): In his first series back of the DL, CarGo didn’t do much, hitting just one single in five at-bats.

Ian Desmond (F): Desmond’s struggles continued as he failed to reach base in eight at-bats. Interestingly, he did not strike out, but that’s of relatively little consequence in context.

Jon Gray (A): He gave up three hits. One was a pop up to left field with a one percent hit probability that happened to leave the park because wind is crazy. The other two were singles. He walked one and struck out six over seven innings of near total domination.

Tyler Anderson (A-): So a guy can give up a homer and get an “A” and another can get an “A-” giving up two of them? Yeah, when you control the rest of the game the way these guys did. Anderson fell victim to the wind once, but gave up only one base hit beside the homers, walked one, and struck out nine. He threw two, maybe three, semi-hittable pitches and was otherwise about as good as a pitcher can be.

Kyle Freeland (B+): The only starter not to give up a home run in the series, Freeland dealt with a bit more traffic and it cost him. Giving up six base hits and a walk led to three tough runs. Though again, one could argue that the only ball hit especially hard against him was a Kris Bryant triple. Each scoring play contained some element of poor luck. He struck out five over his seven innings.