Colorado Rockies vs. Chicago Cubs: Live stream, start times, and preview

The Colorado Rockies (20-12) are setting the pace in the National League West. They will continue a 10-game homestead by welcoming the defending world champion Chicago Cubs to Coors Field from Tuesday to Wednesday. The series was scheduled to start on Monday but rain wiped out the game.

The Cubs (16-15) made the early morning flight to Denver on Monday morning being swept in a three-game series against the New York Yankees at Wrigley Field. With ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball televising the series finale that lasted 18 innings and finished at 12:16 a.m. (Mountain time), the Cubs arrived in the Mile High City around the same time as the sun appeared.

Colorado’s young pitchers who have excelled so much in the early season will get a big test with a Chicago lineup featuring last year’s National League MVP in Kris Bryant along with Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo and others in a dangerous lineup that hasn’t clicked often this season. Rizzo, however, has struggled in the early parts of the season, going just .224 heading into Monday’s opener in Denver.

May has been tough on the Cubs at the plate as the champs have compiled a .217 average overall so far. With runners in scoring position, Chicago is batting just .223 this season.

Can Antonio Senzatela and Kyle Freeland continue their eye-opening starts to their rookie campaigns? They will face stiff tests in the first two games of the series, going up against veterans Jake Arrieta and John Lackey.

Here’s a look at how the series is shaping up at Coors Field…

Colorado Rockies

Probable Pitching Matchups

Tuesday at 12:10 pm MT

Colorado’s Antonio Senzatela (4-1, 2.84 ERA) vs. Chicago’s Jake Arrieta (4-1, 4.63 ERA)

Tuesday at 6:40 pm MT

Colorado’s Kyle Freeland (3-1, 2.65 ERA) vs. Chicago’s John Lackey (2-3, 5.16 ERA)

Wednesday at 1:10 pm MT

Colorado’s German Marquez (0-2, 7.31 ERA) vs. Chicago’s Kyle Hendricks (2-1, 3.51 ERA)

Notes on pitching matchups: We talked about Senzatela and Freeland above. However, the final game will be interesting in terms of what Marquez brings to the mound. As a starter, he has yet to piece together two consecutive quality starts over six starts spanning the last two seasons.

Marquez threw six shutout innings against Arizona on April 30 but that was sandwiched in between starts against Washington and Arizona where he gave up a combined 13 runs in 10 innings.

How to watch or listen

Colorado TV: Root Sports Rocky Mountain

Chicago TV: CSN Chicago (Tuesday day and Wednesday), WGN (Tuesday night)

Colorado Radio: KOA

Chicago Radio: WSCR

Note: Games are also streaming on MLB.TV

Statistic to know: How about the start Mark Reynolds has put together for Colorado? On Saturday, Reynolds hit a first-inning home run to put the Rockies up 4-0 in their 9-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was Reynolds’s 10th home run of the season in his 30th game. That put him only four short of his total from all of last season when he belted 14 home runs in 118 games.

The 33-year-old Reynolds hasn’t had a power streak like this since joining the Rockies prior to last season. According to Elias, Reynolds last had a stretch of 10 homers in 30 games in a season in April/May 2013. Six of Reynolds’s home runs have come over the past 15 days (since April 22). Reynolds had not hit six home runs over a 15-day span since September 2012 with the Orioles.

Oh, by the way, he blasted his 11th homer in his 31st game of the season on Sunday. He’s batting .321 with an OPS of 1.040. He’s absolutely in the zone right now.

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Want to know more about the Rockies-Cubs series from the Windy City perspective? Check out our FanSided colleagues who operate Cubbies Crib.