5 Reasons why you shouldn’t be surprised that the Colorado Rockies beat the Cubs

Many people, particularly in the national media and outside of Denver, expected the Chicago Cubs to take the Colorado Rockies to the bank on Tuesday evening but the Rockies defeated the Cubs 2-1 in 13 innings, the longest winner-take-all game in Major League Baseball history. However, if you look at some of the numbers, the Rockies victory shouldn’t have been all that surprising.

The Chicago Cubs were one of the best teams in all of baseball and they still are. In fact, some would venture to say that they are better than the Colorado Rockies and if you just look at the wins and losses, that would be correct.

Be that as it may, there are some things that, if you dive into the numbers, particularly the numbers down the stretch that point to why the Rockies were the team that should have won Tuesday’s game.

The Cubs collapse

At the end of play on September 1, the Chicago Cubs had a 4.5 game lead on the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Central as well as for the best record in the National League. They had a five game lead on the Milwaukee Brewers as well.

But they choked down the stretch.

After winning two against the Phillies to start the month, the Cubs went to Milwaukee and lost two of three to the Brew Crew. They then went to Washington Nationals, who had long been dead in the hunt for a playoff spot and lost two of four (including a make up game for a rainout the following week).

They then went home to lose two of three to the Brewers again. They did win two of three against teams like the Reds, DBacks in Arizona, and the White Sox. They went to Pittsburgh to split against the Pirates (and one of the two wins was a walkoff for the Cubs) but the Brewers were in control of their destiny since they had gone 4-2 in the month against the Cubs.

Overall, the Cubs went 16-12 in September (their worst record for a month since they went 16-12 in June) but the Brewers stepped up and went 19-7.