Rockies are showing they're no fluke

It had been a month since the Chicago Cubs played the Colorado Rockies, and one thing remains clear: The Rockies are pretty good.

As the season inches to the halfway point, it appears that the surprising Rockies are for real.

They beat the Cubs two out of three last month at Coors Field, and Thursday night at Wrigley Field, they demonstrated quick-strike capability against Jon Lester with a 4-run second inning on the way to a 4-1 victory.

The Rockies, the top team in the National League West, improved to 39-23 with their fifth straight victory. The Cubs lost their second straight to fall to 30-29.

Because the Rockies play their home games at Coors Field, you don't often associate them with good pitching. But this crew can pitch it a little.

“That's been the big difference for me and their team, is their pitching and their bullpen,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “They're just good there. They've had the good defense, also. Jon was really good, actually. They worked good at-bats. They hit the 1 homer, but otherwise he had a pretty good outing.”

Kris Bryant put the Cubs ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the first with a one-out home run off Tyler Chatwood. It was Bryant's 14th homer of the season. Lester stranded a pair of runners in the top of the first and looked to be in good shape after striking out the first two in the second.

No. 8 hitter Tony Wolters reached on an infield single before Chatwood added a single to left. Charlie Blackmon blooped a double to left field before ex-Cub DJ LeMahieu lined an opposite-field 3-run homer to right.

“LeMahieu, I was just informed, that's his second home run in the last four years off a left-handed fastball,” Lester said. “So that's always fun. At the end of the day, I'll take me throwing my fastball down and away and a guy hitting an (opposite-field) homer. It (stinks). We got the loss. That's probably not what you all want to hear, but the guy beat me the other way. So tip your hat.”

It was LeMahieu's first career homer at Wrigley.

“I like playing here,” he said. “I like playing against these guys, and hitting my first homer at Wrigley came at a pretty good time, so I was happy about it.”

Lester worked 5 innings, as he gave up 6 hits. Cubs batters did little with Chatwood, who pitched 6, giving up 4 hits. He has allowed a combined 9 hits and 2 earned runs over his past 3 road starts, covering 21 innings.

The Cubs were able to get some quality bullpen work out of Hector Rondon. He pitched 2 scoreless innings.