CHICAGO -- Rockies right-hander Christian Bergman won't lose sleep over two choices he made Saturday, even though they cost him in a 6-2 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
A long reliever, Bergman made a spot-start and held the Cubs to four hits while throwing 67 pitches in five innings. But two of the hits were home runs on curveballs on consecutive pitches to fourth-inning leadoff man Anthony Rizzo and Jorge Soler. Those runs, with Jake Arrieta in the midst of eight scoreless innings, made victory a tough proposition.
"I still like the thought process behind it," Bergman said. "The only thing I'd like to say is locate them differently.
"Both those guys are aggressive. I'd like to try to slow them down. But the only thing I could look back on is maybe locate it differently."
Still, it turned out Bergman (0-2) did enough to give the Rockies a chance, at least until Cubs center fielder Dexter Fowler extended Chicago's lead to 5-0 with a three-run shot off David Hale in the seventh. Bergman also struck out seven to match his career high, which he recorded on Sept. 15, 2014, against the Dodgers.
"I thought 'Bergie' did a great job keeping us close with a spot-start like that," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said.
Bergman, who started in four of his 30 appearances last season and was filling in the rotation Saturday while righty Jon Gray recovers from an abdominal strain, escaped trouble in the second. Soler and Javier Baez started the inning with singles, but Bergman worked Addison Russell into a double-play grounder and Matt Szczur into a fly to right.
"I just had to execute a pitch to get a double play, a cutter down and away to Russell," Bergman said. "I was just looking for a double play there and was able to do it and get that last out. That was a big inning."