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

The battle of the bullpens

In the month of September (and the one regular season game that they had in October in Game 163), the Chicago Cubs bullpen faltered.

When it mattered the most, the Chicago Cubs bullpen arguably had their worst month (plus a day) of the season. They had an ERA of 3.98, compared to 3.30 in August, with 19 more walks compared to August (in only 2 more innings). Overall, their WHIP was 1.418 in September and October regular season games.

Compare that to the Rockies bullpen. The Rockies bullpen finally stepped up after they struggled, as a collective group, all season.

In 11 1/3 more innings in September and October, they allowed 11 fewer earned runs and 18 fewer total runs than they did in August. That was good enough for the Rockies bullpen ERA to drop from 4.52 in August to their best ERA on the season, 2.98. If that were to be for the full season, that ERA would have been the best bullpen ERA in all of baseball.

Mind you, this is when the Rockies bullpen stalwart Adam Ottavino struggled down the stretch in preventing runs. In September (13 appearances), his ERA was 4.26. If you look at his last 15 appearances of the regular season, that ERA was 5.65 (not a typo).

Wade Davis allowed one run in 11 innings in September (0.82 ERA) and he only allowed five hits. In fact, he only allowed one run after August 9 (0.50 ERA in 18 appearances).

In the Wild Card game, the Rockies bullpen went 5 1/3 innings while only allowing two hits and one run. In the final 4 1/3 innings after Ottavino, Davis, Seunghwan Oh, Chris Rusin, and Scott Oberg combined to allow zero hits, zero runs, and three walks.

In other words, the other people in the Rockies bullpen stepped up down the stretch and the Cubs bullpen did not.