In the the past offseason, the Cubs made two major moves in acquiring Carlos Pena and Matt Garza. Pena is a slugging first basemen known for his great glove and for hitting the long ball. Garza is a solid young arm who the Cubs gave up a lot from their farm system to get. Monday’s game showed what could be when both players play to their potential. Carlos Pena hit two homeruns and Matt Garza pitched seven strong innings to lead the Cubs over the Rockies 7-3.
Matt Garza couldn’t have picked a better day to give the Cubs a quality start. The Cubs have a double-header Tuesday so they needed as many innings from their starter as they could get. Garza went seven strong and gave up three runs on just five hits. The Cubs righty improved his record to 4-6 on the season.
The hitting stars for the Cubs on Monday were Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena. Each homered twice and drove in six of the Cubs seven runs.
Jhoulys Chacin came into Monday’s game as one of the hottest pitchers in all of baseball. In Chacin’s last four starts he was 3-0 with an ERA of just 1.01. That all changed in his last start of June. Chacin gave up six runs on nine hits in his five innings of work. The Rockies righty is now 8-5 on the season.
The Cubs now welcome the San Francisco Giants to town. Tuesday the two teams will play a double-header.