Cubs 2, Rockies 1: Sweep!

The Cubs took care of business against a surprisingly tenacious Rockies team.

It was another unseasonably chilly night at Wrigley Field Wednesday, with temperatures hovering in the mid-50s and the wind, again, blowing in.

And the Cubs got what they needed to defeat the Rockies 2-1 and complete a three-game sweep: Pitching, defense and just enough hitting. The Cubs have won four straight and 10 of their last 12, and continue to lead the NL Central by three games over the Cardinals, who also won Wednesday.

The Cubs got on the board in the bottom of the first inning. Ian Happ led off with a single and was forced at second by Kyle Tucker.

Seiya Suzuki’s double scored Tucker for a 1-0 Cubs lead [VIDEO].

Matthew Boyd breezed through the first four innings, retiring 12 of the 13 Rockies he faced, six by strikeout.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Cubs extended the lead to 2-0 on this home run by Pete Crow-Armstrong [VIDEO].

Look at that clip again. Did you see where that pitch was?

More on that crazy-low pitch smashed out of the yard [VIDEO].

And more!

I’ll give the last words on PCA’s homer to BCB’s JohnW53:

With his 15th home run, Pete Crow-Armstrong is on pace to hit 43 for the season.

That would tie Albert Pujols for the fifth most by a player in his age-23 season. Pujols did it in 2003.

Mark McGwire hit 49 in 1987; Juan Gonzalez, 46 in 1993; Ken Griffey Jr., 45 in 1993; and Hank Aaron, 44 in 1957.

Five others reached 40: Hal Trosky, 42 in 1936; Eddie Mathews, 41 in 1955; Joey Gallo, 41 in 2017; Orlando Cepeda, 40 in 1961; and Prince Fielder, 40 in 2007.

The most by a Cub (so far!) was 26 by Kris Bryant in 2015.

So… PCA is hanging out with some pretty good home-run company — and it’s not even June yet.

Boyd got into the sixth inning still leading 2-0. He allowed a leadoff single to Mickey Moniak and then, in an attempted pickoff, threw the ball away. Moniak ran all the way to third while the ball wound up near the tarp.

About that: Boyd has an odd pickoff motion, sidearm, almost underhand. The ball just got away from him — he actually had Moniak picked off, had he made a good throw.

Moniak scored on a sacrifice fly to make it 2-1.

Overall, Boyd’s start was very good — four hits, all singles, just the one run which was unearned due to his own throwing error, and eight strikeouts. Here are the eight K’s [VIDEO].

Here’s more on Boyd’s outing [VIDEO].

Boyd was also helped out by his defense. Here’s a catch of a long drive by Jordan Beck, up against the ivy by Ian Happ:

So it was up to the bullpen, and they came through. Ryan Brasier allowed a leadoff single in the seventh, but immediately induced a double-play ball and got out of the inning on just six pitches. Brad Keller allowed a one-out single in the eighth but recorded his 13th straight scoreless outing. In May Keller has a 0.00 ERA and 0.682 WHIP with two walks and 12 strikeouts in 14⅔ innings.

The Cubs couldn’t do anything against the Colorado bullpen, either. So the game went to the ninth still 2-1, and Daniel Palencia again was given the save opportunity.

Palencia came through, retiring the Rockies in order. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].

That’s an unhittable pitch — a rising, 101 mile per hour fastball. I am beginning to think that even after Porter Hodge returns to action, Palencia should continue to close.

Here’s PCA on his home run as well as the pitching and defense in this one [VIDEO].

And here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].

The last game note goes to JohnW53:

By my count, this was the Cubs’ 500th win at night at Wrigley Field.

They have lost 436 games under the lights since they were first used on Aug. 8, 1988, for a winning percentage of .534.

In day games at Wrigley since then, their percentage is .525, with 1,029 wins, 930 losses and one tie.

Credit is due to the Rockies. They played good baseball and did not give in easily to the Cubs, who are clearly the better team. There’s some talent on the Rockies — Beck is a good player and so is Ezequiel Tovar. On the other hand:

The Cubs have now played 15 of the 21 games on the schedule against teams with records under .500. They are 12-3 so far. Remember when I said that a good team should go 15-6 or 16-5 in a stretch like this? The Cubs have a very good chance of doing just that. They need to just split the six remaining games to go 15-6, and winning the next two series would result in that 16-5 mark. I believe they can do exactly that before they have tough series at Detroit and Philadelphia.

The Cubs will enjoy their fourth consecutive Thursday off day, then open a three-game series against the Reds Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field. The Cubs starting pitcher is not yet officially listed for Friday, but assuming they stay on rotation it should be Colin Rea. Andrew Abbott will go for Cincinnati. Game time Friday is 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and MLB Network outside the Cubs and Reds market territories).