Dickerson, CarGo each flirt with cycle in rout

DENVER -- Although it took 12 innings to decide Tuesday's game, manager Walt Weiss felt it was lost long before in the sixth when the Rockies failed to build on their lead with runners on second and third with one out.

Entering Wednesday's sixth inning, the Rockies were tasked with overtaking the lead, not growing it. But by the time the frame was over, the Rockies had made up for their lost opportunities and then some.

The Rockies batted around for six runs in the sixth inning Wednesday and never looked back from there en route to a 13-4 win over the Cubs at Coors Field.

"Nothing has come easy lately," Weiss said. "I don't want to say we coasted to the finish line because I don't feel it's ever a coast to the finish line. But it was it was nice see us break it open there in the second half of the game."

The runs were a season-high for the Rockies and all the key contributors came through to break their five-game slide.

Colorado's Nos. 3 through 7 batters combined to go 14-for-19 with 12 runs scored and 10 RBIs before Justin Morneau was replaced in a double-switch in the eighth when the game was clearly in hand.

In his first start since fracturing his non-pitching hand on June 4, right-hander Jordan Lyles showcased a new pitch he's been working on over the past two months: the split-changeup.

"This year my changeup hadn't been too great," Lyles said. "I wanted to figure out a way to offset my fastball, cutter and my harder curveball to get that gap in between speeds."

Lyles came out firing it right away and the results weren't too pretty against the first batter of the game.

"Funny thing is, the first one I threw, [Chris] Coghlan hits it for a triple," Lyles said. "But I have confidence in it. I know it's going to do great things for me down the road so I stuck with it and ended up throwing 20 of them."

Coghlan ended up a homer short of hitting for the cycle.

Lyles did his best to hang with Cubs right-hander Jake Arrieta all evening and he finally got some support when triples by Morneau and Corey Dickerson led to a three-run fourth inning.

Less than a week after holding the Rockies to one run over seven innings, Arrieta entered the sixth protecting a 4-3 lead. But by the time he'd leave the mound that inning, the Rockies would have already racked up seven consecutive hits without a single out.

"They took advantage of some spinning breaking stuff over the middle of the plate," Arrieta said. "It was stuff that didn't have enough bite to it. Give them credit to being ready in those situations and putting good swings on it."

The Rockies 13 hits off Arrieta set a new career-high for him and runs allowed (nine) tied his previous high-mark.

Dickerson finished with four hits for the third time this season, missing out on his first career cycle by one long ball.

Returning from an ankle injury that cost him three games, Carlos Gonzalez finished a triple shy of the cycle with three runs and two RBIs.

Gonzalez entered Wednesday with a .170 average (9-for-57) since returning from finger surgery on July 11. But against the Cubs -- a team who he had posted a lifetime .353 (36-for-102) average -- he came alive.

"Hopefully it's a sign he's getting on track again," Weiss said. "We've seen him have a night like this many times. When he gets rolling, it's something to see … hopefully he can get a stretch of health here and have a big finish for us. I expect he'll end up doing that."