On The Horizon: Cubs vs. Rockies series preview

This part of the 2019 Cubs schedule is kind of odd... two weeks’ worth of nothing but Cardinals and Rockies (with a makeup game against the Angels squished in the middle of that run).

The Cubs won five of their last six games against St. Louis and Colorado, taking two of three from the Rox at Wrigley Field.

Since we last saw the Rockies, in that faraway land of “last Thursday,” the Cubs swept the Cardinals and the Rockies lost two of three to the Mets in New York. Colorado doesn’t have a good record on the road (15-19) and their offense was mostly shut down the last two days by Steven Matz and Noah Syndergaard.

The first two games of this series feature pitching rematches of the games last Wednesday and Thursday at Wrigley. The Cubs got good pitching in both of those games, and split them. They’ll need to keep hitting the way they did over the weekend against the Cardinals to have a chance in this series.

Fun fact

The Cubs have not won the season series against the Rockies since 2015, when they went 4-2 against them. Overall they are 13-15 against the Rox since 2015, their only losing record against a National League team in that span.

Pitching matchups

Monday: Yu Darvish, RHP (2-3, 4.88 ERA, 1.523 WHIP, 5.12 FIP) vs. German Marquez, RHP (6-3, 4.07 ERA, 1.185 WHIP, 3.40 FIP)

Tuesday: Jose Quintana, LHP (4-5, 3.77 ERA, 1.270 WHIP, 3.58 FIP) vs. Peter Lambert, RHP (1-0, 1.29 ERA, 0.714 WHIP, 1.00 FIP)

Wednesday: Cole Hamels, LHP (5-2, 3.24 ERA, 1.197 WHIP, 3.61 FIP) vs. Antonio Senzatela, RHP (5-4, 4.95 ERA, 1.533 WHIP, 5.56 FIP)

Times & TV channels

Monday: 7:40 p.m. CT, NBC Sports Chicago

Tuesday: 7:40 p.m. CT, WGN

Wednesday: 2:10 p.m. CT, NBC Sports Chicago, MLB Network (outside Cubs and Rockies market territories)

Prediction

The Rockies have won eight consecutive home games, which sounds great, until you realize that four of those wins were against the awful Blue Jays and Orioles, and they had to take the Diamondbacks to extra innings twice in order to sweep them in a four-game series.

Still, the Rockies are a tough team to beat in their home park, and as noted above, Cubs teams have not had much success in Coors Field recently.

I like predicting series wins, though, so cautiously I will say the Cubs will find a way to win two of three.

Up next

The Cubs head to Los Angeles for a four-game series against the Dodgers beginning Thursday evening.