Chicago – Crack.
If there is a single sound that summarizes the past four days, it is this. Crack. It’s the siren that a baseball is leaving the bat and fleeing either over the fence or into safe outfield pasture.
This symphony of destruction was sticking in heads like lyrics to a bad song, providing the score to a forgettable Rockies’ trip. But nothing could have prepared them for Monday.
They lost in a fashion that may prove difficult to ever overcome, squandering a six-run, ninth-inning rally.
An error on Kaz Matsui and an Alfonso Soriano game-winning single to center field proved the difference as Colorado fell 10-9 under the lights at Wrigley Field.
Brian Fuentes blew his second consecutive save. He was tagged for three hits in the ninth. He could have escaped the jam had Matsui handled a groundball. That was a gnawing thought as Soriano received a standing ovation from the crowd. It was Matsui’s first error this season as the Rockies established a season-long, four-game losing streak.
It seemed impossible after the Rockies’ ninth. They began their final at-bat trailing 8-3. Then quicker than you can say deep dish, they were leading, tying the largest deficit overcome on the road in the process. Or so they thought.
After the first two hitters reached in the ninth, a numbing barrage began. Todd Helton doubled home a run, summoning Cubs manager Lou Piniella from the dugout. He yanked struggling left-hander Scott Eyre, replacing him with Bob Howry.
Garrett Atkins greeted him with a single, scoring a run. Then Brad Hawpe rifled to right field, ushering across another run and bringing the winning run to the plate. Tulowitzki relishes these moments. It’s as if he’s still in his backyard playing Wiffle Ball, predicting greatness.
Howry tried to sneak a fastball past the kid. He deposited it into the left-field seats, creating a collective groan from the announced crowed of 40,269. Seconds after Tulowitzki entered the Rockies’ dugout, lost in a sea of high-fives, a disgruntled Cubs’ fan charged the mound. He waved his arms at Howry as if to suggest, “How could you?”
He was quickly clothes-lined by security. It’s saying something that it wasn’t the hardest hit of the inning. Tulowitzki’s home run was his fourth in five games. Of course, because this is the road where nothing comes easy or seems to go as planned, Fuentes created a mess that he couldn’t clean up.
