Sloppy Chicago Cubs fall to Colorado Rockies

This news is just in, and it may come as a shock: The Chicago Cubs are human.

Playing their first home day game of the season, the Cubs saw not only the light but the error of their ways in a sloppy 6-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies on a brilliantly sunny and cool Friday at Wrigley Field.

The error count reached 4 for the normally sure-handed Cubs. Throw in a passed ball and a wild pitch, and this was one the Cubs were more than happy to wash off afterward.

The loss ended the first-place Cubs' winning streak at five games and dropped their record to 8-2.

"We had a bad day, man," said manager Joe Maddon. "It's not always going to be an oil painting. I really believe in the power of 24 hours."

For Maddon, it works the same way win or lose: Celebrate a victory for five minutes and then get ready for the next day. Conversely, mope about a loss for those same five minutes and go get 'em tomorrow.

"We'll just throw that one in the can and come out tomorrow and play our normal game," Maddon said. "We're really good. You've seen that already. It was a tough day on defense."

The Cubs entered the day as the top fielding team in the National League, with a fielding percentage of .994 and 2 errors over their first nine games.

The errors Friday came in various shapes and sizes:

• Starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks, who threw the ball well, failed to pick up a roller off the bat of Nolan Arenado in the second inning, and it led to an unearned run.

• The Rockies got a pair of legit runs in the sixth before a throwing error by third baseman Kris Bryant - his second error of the game - allowed a run to score from first base on a bunt play in the seventh.

• Shortstop Addison Russell threw one away to start the eighth, when the Rockies put the game away with 2 more runs.

"Today, we just didn't adjust to them playing small ball, and we had a few errors," Russell said. "This opening week, we haven't been playing teams that show the small ball. That's something that we're going to have to get better at."

As for Hendricks (1-1), he worked 6 innings, giving up 7 hits and 4 runs, but only 2 earned runs. He was outdueled by Rockies starter Chad Bettis (2-0), who pitched 6 shutout innings. A Cubs lineup that had been hard to stop managed just 4 hits Friday.

Cubs pitchers have 9 quality starts in the first 10 games of the season.

"I wouldn't say it's expected, but we put the pressure on ourselves as a staff," Hendricks said. "We want to go deep into ballgames. We have a good bullpen. There are quality arms, but it's almost a pride thing. You want to go deep in games, and everybody's been doing it. When you see everybody else doing it, it makes you want to do it even more."