CHICAGO — launched a hot shot toward left-field line in the seventh inning Monday night. Like a guided missile, the ball screeched straight into glove of third baseman Kris Bryant. Arenado slammed his bat to the ground in frustration as the crowd at Wrigley Field booed him.
When Arenado struck out to end the game with two men on base, he simply walked slowly back to the dugout.
And so it goes for the Rockies, who, despite a solid start from Kyle Freeland, lost 3-2 to the Cubs. It was Colorado’s third consecutive loss on what’s got the makings of a trying nine-game road trip. Chicago won its fifth straight to move a season-high six games above .500.
Freeland pitched seven innings, walking only one and giving up just six hits. But Chicago cracked him in the sixth when Bryant led off with a triple off the bricks in left field, the ball bounding past outfielder . Anthony Rizzo’s groundout to second scored Bryant with the go-ahead run.
“Kyle pitched well,” manager Bud Black said. “We’ve talked so much about the fastball command and I thought the fastball inside to the right-handers was effective tonight. And I like the fact that he got some outs with the fastball away. He had good action down that produced some groundball outs, and he threw some good sliders, he attacked. We saw a lot of good things from Kyle tonight, which was great.”
Though Freeland’s record fell to 1-4, his ERA is 4.24 and it’s falling. Plus, the left-hander showed a veteran’s composure as he pitched at Wrigley for the first time, and he handled himself well in front of a boisterous crowd.
“It was a tough environment to play in, a tough team to play, but overall it felt good and it’s something to build off of,” Freeland said. “It stinks that we didn’t get a win out of it, but we are grinding now and we are going to keep on grinding.”
The Rockies, searching for signs of offensive life, grabbed a 2-1 lead in the fifth. A bloop single by scored , who had reached on a walk. Then Freeland — who reached on an error when second baseman Javier Baez dropped the ball while covering first base — scored on Arenado’s double to left. When Trevor Story drew a walk off Lester to load the bases, a rare big inning seemed possible for Colorado. But Cubs left-hander Jon Lester froze Chris Iannetta with an 85 mph cutter, striking him out looking at a 3-2 pitch to end the inning.
“You never want to get called out on strikes with the bases loaded, but that was a really tough pitch,” said Iannetta, who went 1-for-4 but has seen his average dip to .216. “It was at the top of the zone; a backdoor cutter and a tough pitch to hit. When you go back and look at it, it’s a pitch I should probably just try and foul off. That’s a really tough pitch to try and pull the trigger on.
“I’m definitely not happy with that. And it’s been a little bit of a two-week stretch where I haven’t been seeing the ball very well and haven’t been swinging very well. I’ve also hit some ball right at guys, so I’m just going through some bad luck right now.”
The Rockies did manage to snap a 16-inning scoreless drought that went back to the sixth inning of Saturday night’s game in Miami when Charlie Blackmon hit a solo home run. Also, rookie right fielder Noel Cuevas went 3-for-4 from the seventh spot Monday night, giving the Rockies some rare production from the bottom half of the order.
“That was good for Noel to get three hits, obviously, but we still have to string them together,” Black said. “We threw together a couple innings … and there were a couple of innings were we had some threats, but we didn’t get the big hit.”
Chicago knotted the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the frame on Alberto Almora’s single to score Addison Russell. It was Russell who had put the Cubs in front, 1-0 in the second, by driving in Ben Zobrist who smacked a ground-rule double down the third-base line.
Looking ahead
Rockies RHP Jon Gray (2-4, 5.79) at Cubs RHP Kyle Hendricks (2-1, 3.10), 6:05 p.m., ATTRM
After three consecutive rocky starts, Gray turned in an ace outing with six innings of scoreless ball last week against San Diego. Now, building consistency from start to start is his goal. He’ll intend to do so against a Chicago lineup that blasted him for seven runs in five innings on April 20 at Coors Field. Hendricks pitched decently in that game, yielding three runs in five innings en route to the win. And considering how Hendricks continued to attack the zone in his next start, seven shutout innings against the Brewers last week, Colorado should be aggressive against a veteran with 11 strikeouts and no walks over the past two games. — Kyle Newman, The Denver Post
Wednesday: Rockies LHP Tyler Anderson (1-0, 4.10) at Cubs RHP Yu Darvish (0-2, 6.86), 12:30 p.m. ATTRM
Thursday: Off day
Friday: Rockies RHP German Marquez (1-3, 5.46) at Mets LHP Jason Vargas (0-1, 22.09), 5:10 p.m. ATTRM
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