There will be more to say about that series as a whole, but I think if you watched it, you already know the broad strokes. The Cubs did not play well all series. Outside of some Yan Gomes hero moments, a good Jordan Wicks start in the first game, and some nice catches, it was some really bad baseball. Deserve-to-lose-against-anyone bad baseball. Some terrible pitching. Some terrible defense. Some ABYSMAL baserunning. And so many missed opportunities.
Two things are true:
1.) The Cubs just lost 5 of 7 for the first time since the start of July, and that is BAD. Concern about them wearing down is warranted.
2.) Coors/Colorado is just a weird place to play and this shit happens all the time to good teams.
What the Cubs do in Arizona this weekend will go a long way toward telling us whether this series was just “Coors is weird,” or whether it was “yeah, that was the continuation of some bad signals for a fading team.”
You can pick your preferred horror for today – it had them all – but for me it was the missed opportunities. The Cubs left an almost unbelievable 11 runners on base today, with a 12th thrown out stealing to end the first inning. It’s really hard to do that even if you were trying. And doing it in Coors Field against the Rockies pitching staff? It shouldn’t be possible. But that’s what the Cubs did, and if you are feeling particularly horrible right now, as I am, the extreme failure with runners on base is probably the main culprit.
Jameson Taillon was solid the first time through the order, and then he started the thing where he just kept throwing meatballs. I don’t get it, but it’s been a theme this year. The Rockies caught on, and started crushing him. The second of his two two-run homers allowed came after Ian Happ dropped a would-be third out in left field, so I guess you can cut Taillon some small slack there – but still, the rockets given up came off of his pitches. And we’ve seen this before.
Even as the pitching/defense gave up seven runs, though, it’s pretty hard for me not to fixate on how the offensive opportunities played out …