Cubs can't afford a slip-up in series against Colorado

The Colorado Rockies just finished a three-game series against a team fighting for a wild-card spot, and now they face another one when the Chicago Cubs come to town on Friday night.

Chicago will send Javier Assad (7-5, 3.14 ERA) to the mound, while Colorado is expected to take Austin Gomber (5-10, 4.50) off the paternity list to open the three-game series in Denver.

The Cubs (75-71) are five games behind the New York Mets, who receive the third wild card in the National League, and cannot afford to make a mistake with 16 games remaining. Chicago has the sixth-best record in the Major Leagues in the second half of the season at 28-20, putting it in the running for the championship.

The Cubs won two of three games at Dodger Stadium earlier this week, but were disappointed after Los Angeles won the final 10-8 on Wednesday.

This did not discourage Chicago, although the team had to overtake New York and the Atlanta Braves to get back into the postseason.

“We know we have to get some wins,” Kyle Hendricks, who is scheduled to start pitching on Sunday, said recently. “But you have to take it one day at a time. You can't win three or four games in one day. So you come here every day and we know what we're focused on. We know it's a short stretch here. So, yeah, we're just giving it everything we've got. We know if we play to our potential … anything can happen.”

It starts with Assad, who suffered an unfortunate loss to the New York Yankees on Saturday, allowing two runs (one earned) in 5 2/3 innings.

Assad has averaged six innings per start in his last four appearances after struggling to get deep into games. He has faced the Rockies four times in his career (three starts), going 2-1 with a 4.70 ERA. Assad's first start of the year was against Colorado, and he threw six scoreless innings in a win on April 2.

The Rockies (55-92) have played well at home in recent months, winning 17 of their last 31 games in Denver. Colorado also causes problems for winning teams. The Rockies won two of three games in Milwaukee last weekend and beat the Detroit Tigers 4-2 on Thursday to secure the finale of a three-game series.

Gomber will look to give Colorado a boost in his first game since the birth of his wife Rachel's baby girl. He is coming off one of his best starts of the season, limiting Atlanta to one run in an eight-inning victory on Sept. 5.

He hasn't gotten much run help lately — the Rockies haven't scored more than three runs in any of his last six games. In eight career appearances (three starts) against the Cubs, Gomber has a record of 0-2 and a 6.62 ERA.

One area where Colorado can improve is scoring runs instead of just going for the goal, and the Rockies did that on Thursday when a single, passed ball, double, groundout and sacrifice fly made the difference in the ninth inning.

“Home runs are the most efficient way to score points in this game,” said Michael Toglia, who leads Colorado in home runs with 23. “But that doesn't mean you have to go all out for home runs every time.”

–Field level media