'We're not ever out of a game': Rox fight, fall

CHICAGO -- The identity of the Rockies’ struggling starting pitcher was different Wednesday night. Germán Márquez had a 2.08 road ERA before finishing his 5 1/3 innings with a career-high-tying eight runs allowed. But the offensive surge that, in this case, nearly overcame Marquez’s poor start, was a familiar story.

An offense that is rarely out of a game used a single, double and triple from David Dahl and two hits and the second of two walks from Trevor Story -- all after the fifth -- to help erase a three-run deficit and nearly climb back from five runs down. But the Rockies couldn’t complete the rally and fell to the Cubs, 9-8, at Wrigley Field.

• Box score

“We haven’t really talked about it other than we don’t really want to give [at-bats] away -- we’ve expressed that,” Story said. “It’s more of a feeling. We know we’re not ever out of a game. If we get down early, we feel like there’s still that confidence that we can crawl back into a game.”

Story doubled and Dahl singled off Steve Cishek with no outs in the ninth to make it a one-run game, but Cishek forced a Nolan Arenado popup and fanned Daniel Murphy and Ryan McMahon.

Now, the 5.70 rotation ERA is a problem. But as the Rockies showed during a 9-1 homestand that preceded dropping the first two at Wrigley, even slightly better pitching could improve the record further.

The Rockies’ 328 runs are second only to the runaway National League West-leading Dodgers’ 340 in the NL. However, with just five wins when trailing after six innings, the Rockies can only imagine more comeback successes had deficits not been as big. They’re calling on 22-year-old righty Peter Lambert to suppress runs and help avert a sweep in his Major League debut in Thursday afternoon's finale.

“We have the winning run at the plate in the ninth inning, in a game that looked like it was going to go the other way, but we fought back,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “The resiliency of this team is really impressive. That’s how we do it.”

Marquez (6-3) usually isn’t the one who makes the hitters have to draw on resilience. He breezed until Longmont, Colo., native David Bote, who drove in a career-high seven runs, tagged him for a three-run homer after Marquez gave up two singles with two down in the fifth.

“My mechanics were a little quick,” said Marquez, who left after hitting Willson Contreras with a pitch to force in a run in the sixth, and watched Bote double in three runs off Chris Rusin. “I fell to first base. That’s why [pitches] got hit.”

But after he was gone, he could enjoy the offense that almost flipped this one to the Rockies. Colorado struggled early against Yu Darvish before a three-run, three-hit sixth that featured Dahl’s double and RBI hits from Arenado and McMahon.

The Rockies can lament a couple of other opportunities gone awry before the ninth -- two on and one out in the three-run sixth before Brandon Kintzler fanned Ian Desmond and coaxed a Tony Wolters foul pop, and one out and one on with four seventh-inning runs already in before Mike Montgomery forced McMahon into a double-play grounder.

But the key is creating chances.

“We’re confident in the lineup, and we’re just trying to have quality at-bats -- each guy pass the baton to the next guy,” said Dahl, tied with the Mets’ Jeff McNeil for third in the NL with a .337 batting average -- behind second-place Arenado at .343 and the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger at .370. “That’s what we’ve been doing. Now we’ve got to shake this off and come out ready for another good pitcher [Jose Quintana] tomorrow.”