Rocky Mountain Blues: Cubs fall to Rockies |
DENVER -- Coors Field claimed another pitching victim as Jake Arrieta got knocked around giving up seven runs in the Colorado Rockies 10-4 win against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday afternoon. Arrieta was rocked early as he gave up six runs in the third inning with most of the damage occurring on a bases-loaded bloop single that fell within inches of a diving Kyle Schwarber. A throwing error to third base by Javy Baez really hurt the Northsiders as the floodgates opened up during after that mistake. The Cubs are now a .500 team through the first 32 games of the young season.
Arrieta was pulled early going only 3.2 innings giving up nine hits, nine runs which five were earned, and three walks. His season ERA total has ballooned up to 5.35. In two career starts at Coors Field, Arrieta has gone 8 2/3 innings giving up 22 hits, 18 runs including 14 earned runs. The Cubs management group continue to look extremely savvy as they still have not re-signed Arrieta to a massive long-term contract despite his popularity with his teammates and fans. For the season, Cubs starters are 11-9 with a 4.81 ERA and averaging 5 1/3 IP per start. According to ESPN Stats and Info, this is the 11th time in the last eight seasons that the Cubs gave up 13 hits or more in the first five innings of a game. Offensively for the Cubs, through eight innings, they were only able to muster three ground-out RBIs, one each by Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber, and Jon Jay. In the ninth inning, Willson Contreras added a RBI double to score Addison Russell to get their fourth run on the board. The Chicago Cubs will have a chance to redeem themselves quickly as they will be playing again tonight at 7:40 p.m. CDT in game two of the doubleheader as John Lackey (2-3, 5.14 ERA) will take the mound against lefty Kyle Freeland (3-1, 3.65 ERA).
