Mile-high blunders cause Cubs to drop series in Colorado

Meaningful September baseball is relatively rare in Chicago, but it works like any other month of the season.

One bad series can send a team in the wrong direction.

The Cubs lost three out of four against Arizona at home last week, but they were stoned by the Diamondbacks' two best pitchers, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, and the Cubs were very competitive in two 1-run losses.

There's no excuse for dropping two of three in Colorado. Once again, the Cubs made more mistakes as they turned an early 3-0 lead into a humbling 7-3 loss on Wednesday.

"We're still in a good spot, we're in a great spot," losing pitcher Jameson Taillon said after the game. "Obviously, today's a pretty bad loss. It felt like early on we were going to get after it, get out of here with a nice win and then obviously we kind of fell apart there."

Taillon is right. The Brewers are starting to slip out of sight for the NL Central lead, but the Cubs are still the middle wild card team. They'd need to be passed up twice in the final 15 games to miss the playoffs completely.

The lack of runs in a supposed hitter's paradise of Coors Field is baffling. On Monday, Rockies starter Kyle Freeland began the night with a 5.09 ERA, Chris Flexen on Tuesday had a 7.36 ERA, Ty Blach on Wednesday was at 4.58. The Cubs scored 3 runs against all three.

The Cubs tried to get aggressive against Blach; on the first three pitches of the game, Christopher Morel doubled and Nico Hoerner singled. The Cubs managed just 1 run in the inning, though. They loaded the bases in the second on a double, walk and single, but didn't score.

Dansby Swanson barely missed a 3-run homer in the third, and the Cubs scored twice to go up 3-0. But Swanson was on second with nobody out and didn't score. Two singles in the fourth produced nothing, bases loaded with one out in the eighth with no runs, and you get the idea.

"Big picture-wise, 27 games in 27 days, these guys are at the back end and grinding with everything they have, giving us everything they've got," manager David Ross said. "Some things didn't show up that we're normally better at this series. But we're at the back end of a season and I think we went 16-11 in 27 games. That's pretty good."

So Ross suggested the Cubs might be worn down after a grueling stretch of the schedule. But he's also the one who decided not to give the regulars any days off, even after a doubleheader in Cincinnati, consecutive 90-degree day games, then a pair of night-day turnarounds at Wrigley Field last week.

The most costly mistakes of this game happened during Colorado's 4-run fifth inning. Taillon seemed to be cruising along, then gave up a one-out single to No. 9 hitter Austin Wynns. Nolan Jones followed with a game-tying 2-run homer as Taillon put a fastball over the middle of the plate.

Kris Bryant was next and he lifted a deep fly ball to left-center field that Ian Happ had in his glove and dropped for an error. On the very next pitch, Elehuris Montero belted a 2-run homer to put Colorado ahead. Bryant homered off Hayden Wesneski and Ryan McMahon off Drew Smyly to make it 7-3.

Rookie Pete Crow-Armstrong got another start in center field, but is now 0-for-7 at the plate to start his career,

The only saving grace right now is the Cubs aren't scheduled to face Gallen or Kelly in Arizona. While the Cubs can relax in Phoenix Thursday, the Diamondbacks will be playing a game in New York against the Mets, then Justin Steele will start for the Cubs Friday.

"We have a good off-day to regroup," Taillon said. "We just played Arizona, we know how tough they are. So we have an opportunity to go in there and play our game and make a statement."

Twitter: @McGrawDHSports