The Colorado Rockies finished their first sweep in quite a while when they knocked out the Chicago Cubs 7-5 on Thursday at Coors Field in their final home game of 2012.
Colorado started the game off with hot bats and never looked back, starting with a three-run first inning and two innings with two runs apiece immediately after. Led by a two-hit, three-RBI day from Jordan Pacheco, the Rockies had already put themselves up 7-2 by the time the third inning was over. Battered starting pitcher Chris Volstad was pulled at that point, settling the game down a bit. Chicago got one more run off a Bryan Lahair single, which ended the scoring until the ninth inning.
Matt Belisle had a shaky start to the ninth inning and gave the Rockies a bit of a scare as he allowed Anthony Rizzo to smack in a fourth run for the Cubs. He was quickly pulled in favor of Rafael Betancourt, who quickly allowed a run but was able to stop the bleeding after that with two strikeouts to end the game at 7-5.
Jhoulys Chacin had a solid if unspectacular day on the mound for the Rockies, earning his third win of the season while allowing three runs on seven hits. His control was a bit iffy, allowing four walks to only two strikeouts, but it was another promising start for the recovering righty.
The sweep of Chicago pushes the Rockies to 62-94, completely knocking out the chance of a dreaded 100-loss season, barring six straight losses to end the year. They'll face the Los Angeles Dodgers in LA for a three-game series next before closing the year in Arizona.