The Cubs hit home runs in Friday and put consistent pressure on the Rockies on Saturday to win the first two games of the series.
Saturday’s game between the Cubs and Rockies got off to an uncharacteristically low-scoring start at Coors Field. But the baseball started soaring, at least to the fence, in the fifth inning of the Cubs’ 4-3 win.
“There’s a lot of grass out there,” Cubs switch hitter Ian Happ said Friday. “I think that’s the biggest thing. People talk about how well it flies – and it does, like there’s some balls that get to the wall that wouldn’t – but there’s just a lot of places to get hits, so mentally, it’s a little bit freeing.”
As the Cubs look to finish the season strong, a weekend in mentally-freeing conditions for the offense couldn’t hurt.
Anecdotally, during the Cubs’ recent slump, they weren’t getting the “big hit.” That observation was reflected in the Cubs’ home runs with runners on base.
Through June, the Cubs had the second-most home runs with runners on in the majors (55), trailing only the Dodgers (56).
Since the beginning of July, however, the Cubs entered Saturday with the second-fewest multi-run home runs (18), tied with the Padres and only better than the Nationals (14).
The dramatic difference is a little misleading. A lack of large leads exacerbated the swing.
