Sept. 13 – The Colorado Rockies recently finished a three-game series with one team competing for a wild-card spot and will now face another when the Chicago Cubs come to town on Friday night.
Chicago will keep Javier Asad (7-5, 3.14 ERA) up top, while Colorado is expected to activate Austin Gomber (5-10, 4.50) from the dead list to open a three-game series in Denver.
The Cubs (75-71) trail the New York Mets by five games for the third National League wild card and have no room for error with 16 games remaining. Chicago entered the pennant race with a 28-20 record in the second half of the season, the sixth-best in the majors.
The Cubs won two of three games at Dodger Stadium earlier this week, but were disappointed on Wednesday after Los Angeles won the finale 10-8.
Even though Chicago needs to get past New York and the Atlanta Braves to get back into the playoffs, that doesn’t discourage Chicago.
“We knew we had to get some wins,” Kyle Hendricks, who is scheduled to play Sunday, said recently. “However, it’s a day-to-day thing. You can’t win three or four games in one day. So you come in every day and we know what our focus is. We know time is short here. So, yeah, as long as we give it our all, we know if we live up to our potential … anything can happen.”
First up is Asad, who had some luck against the New York Yankees on Saturday, giving up two runs (one earned) in 5 2/3 innings.
Assad has averaged six innings per start in his last four starts after struggling to get deep into games. He faced the Rockies four times in his career (three starts) and was 2-1 with a 4.70 ERA. Assad’s first start of the year came against Colorado State, where he pitched six scoreless innings on April 2 and earned the win.
The Rockies (55-92) have been strong at home in recent months and have won 17 of their last 31 games in Denver. Colorado is also upsetting winless teams. The Rockies won two of three games in Milwaukee last weekend and saved the final game of a three-game series with a 4-2 win over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.
Gomber will try to give Colorado momentum in his first game since wife Rachael gave birth to a baby girl this week. On Sept. 5, he led Atlanta to a win over eight innings, one of his best starts of the season.
He hasn’t received much run support lately — the Rockies haven’t allowed more than three runs in his last six starts. In eight career games against the Cubs (three starts), Gomber is 0-2 with a 6.62 ERA.
One area where Colorado can improve is in its production area rather than everything else. The Rockies did exactly that on Thursday with a single, a passed ball, a double, a grounder and a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning.
“Home runs are the most efficient way to score in a game. That doesn’t mean you have to go for a home run every time,” said Michael Toglia, who led Colorado with 23 runs and sold out.
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