On The Horizon: Cubs vs. Rockies Series Preview

There will be more on Trevor Story in the game preview, but he's the ... uh... story of the Rockies' season so far this year.

He was once a top-100 prospect... three years ago. His minor-league numbers were good in 2015, but not eye-popping.

And then he goes and does things that no one in the history of baseball has done over his first six games (seven homers). Since that homer barrage stopped: seven K's in 12 at-bats. So we'll see which part of the Story happens this weekend.

Usually in this space I'd post something from the site manager at our corresponding SB Nation site, but I didn't receive anything in time to slot into this series preview. For more on the Rockies you can check out their SB Nation site, Purple Row.

Fun fact

The Cubs have won nine of the last 13 games these two teams have played, since the beginning of 2014.

Pitching matchups

Friday: Kyle Hendricks (1-0, 2.70 ERA, 0.750 WHIP, 2.16 FIP) vs. Chad Bettis (1-0, 4.38 ERA, 1.297 WHIP, 4.67 FIP)

Saturday: Jake Arrieta (2-0, 1.93 ERA, 0.786 WHIP, 3.57 FIP) vs. Christian Bergman (0-1, 12.00 ERA, 2.333 WHIP, 2.88 FIP)

Sunday: Jon Lester (1-0, 2.77 ERA, 0.846 WHIP, 3.29 FIP) vs. Tyler Chatwood (1-1, 4.38 ERA, 1.541 WHIP, 5.00 FIP)

Prediction

The Cubs are on a roll, and the Rockies, despite Story's historic start, aren't a very good team. I thought they were the worst team I saw during spring training, which doesn't generally mean all that much, but in this case... might be true. The pitching matchups all seem to favor the Cubs (especially Saturday when Bergman, usually a reliever, makes a start in place of the rehabbing Jon Gray, who was injured during spring training), so I'll say the Cubs should take two of three. (I'm still not predicting sweeps in any series longer than two games.)

Up next

The Cubs have their first trip to St. Louis to meet their divisional rival, the Cardinals, in a three-game series beginning Monday night.