Colorado Rockies series preview: three games with the Chicago Cubs

After a rough series in Miami, the Colorado Rockies head to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Cubs for a three game series.

The Colorado Rockies will head to Chicago for the second of three stops on their nine game roadtrip. The series will start today at 5:05 MT so here are some things to keep an eye out for in the series.

The Cubs offense has been really good this season

Entering Monday, the Chicago Cubs have had one of the best offenses in all of baseball. They enter Monday with an offensive slash line of .254/.336/.412, which is 3rd, 2nd, and 2nd in the National League.

Rockies fans saw a glimpse of that a little more than a week ago when the Rockies lost two of three, including a 16-5 loss in which the Rockies allowed 18 hits. Two players to keep an eye on are Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber.

Baez enters the series with 7 home runs and 26 RBI with a slash line of .292/.346/.656 and an OPS+ of 167. He went 7-for-16 against the Rockies with 2 doubles, 2 homers, and 7 RBI.

Schwarber enters with 7 homers, 17 RBI, a slash line of .276/.389/.592, and an OPS+ of 164. He also went 5-for-9 in the series with the Rockies with a homer and 5 RBI.

However, the Cubs only scored nine runs in their four game series with the Brewers…but they still swept the Brewers.

Only once in MLB history has there been a four game sweep with less runs needed. That was when the 1968 Cleveland Indians swept the Chicago White Sox from June 3 through June 6 by only scoring eight runs but only allowing four (and one of the games went 14 innings and another went 11 innings).

So, obviously, with being able to sweep a four-game series with only scoring nine runs…

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Their pitching has been coming into their own

Coming into the series, the Cubs starting pitching has been excellent, and particularly lately. They come in with a starters’ ERA of 4.00, which is not great. However, since they left Denver last Sunday, their starters have had an ERA of 0.90.

In fact, they have only allowed four earned runs in six games, two against Cleveland and four against Milwaukee.

Their bullpen comes into the series with an ERA of 2.65 with an opponent batting average of .214 so, obviously, they have had held up their end of the bargain too. Since they left Colorado, their ERA has been 2.07.

The return of Carlos Gonzalez

The Rockies just activated Carlos Gonzalez off the disabled list today but, in a corresponding move, DJ LeMahieu was sent to the disabled list with a right hamstring tightness. He suffered the injury on Friday so his stint on the disabled list will be retroactive to then, meaning he could be activated from the 10-day disabled list next Tuesday.

For CarGo, he will not be in the starting lineup on Monday but the team will be relying on him going forward.

Much has been made (as it should be) about how the Rockies offense has struggled to start the year, and particularly as of late.

Next: A recap of the series in Miami

The Rockies will need the CarGo that they saw the last two months of last season and the CarGo that they saw in 2016, not the CarGo that they saw in early 2017 and thus far this season.