Rockies sign Arcia, get swept for ninth time in 2025
The broken record player of the 2025 Colorado Rockies season kept spinning this week, as the team lost three straight games to the Chicago Cubs, marking the ninth time they’ve been swept this year. Although they added a shiny new infielder in the process, the results on the field stayed the same.
Game One
Rockies rookie Carson Palmquist took the bump in front of 40,000 loyal Chicago fans for his third start of the season. The 24-year-old had a respectable outing, but he’s still overshadowed so far by rookie-counterpart Chase Dollander.
Palmquist was pulled after five innings, being eight pitches shy of the century mark allowing just two runs and three hits. He had command issues all afternoon with just a 60% strike rate and allowing three walks.
Colorado’s Mickey Moniak tied the game at one after a home run in the fifth, marking the third time in his career he’s left the yard in back-to-back games. He had gone 34 consecutive games without a home run, since his blast in mid-April against the Nationals, but broke the skid in game three against the New York Yankees last Sunday.
Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker gave Chicago the lead back later in the fifth, then delivered an insurance run in the seventh with a sacrifice fly. Colorado went down quietly in the final frames, and dropped the series opener 3-1.
After the game, it was announced that the Rockies were close to finalizing a free-agent contract with 30-year-old infielder Orlando Arcia. After starting his career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2016, he was delt to the Atlanta Braves in the middle of 2021 and won a World Series later that year. Arcia’s never been a tremendous hitter, with a career OPS+ of 73, but his defensive variability should add to the depth of the club’s infield.
Game Two
The Cubs struck early in Tuesday’s contest, scoring a pair of runs off Rockies’ Germán Márquez in the third inning. However, the seven-batter frame forced Márquez to adjust, but he settled in and shifted into cruise control. He only gave up three hits while striking out four from that point on with no more damage.
Márquez has dropped his ERA from 9.90 to 7.13 in May, with three of his last five starts yielding two runs or fewer. He’d end Tuesday’s display striking out six, while giving up two runs across six innings.
After trailing 2-0, Ryan McMahon got the Rox on the board with an RBI single in the fourth. Brenton Doyle followed with a game-tying solo swamp donkey – his first of this month – going into the eighth inning. The game remained tied through nine-innings, sending the Rockies to extra innings for the fourth time in 2025, still seeking its first win beyond regulation.
In the eleventh inning, Doyle tallied his second RBI off a grounder, but the Cubs answered immediately. Chicago’s Micheal Busch tied it up with an RBI single, and Matt Shaw ended it with a flare to right field scoring the game winning run. Rockies lose, 4-3.
Game Three
Arcia’s contract was finalized before Wednesday’s bout, and he got inserted at designated hitter batting seventh. He had the best day at the ballpark of any Rockie, and started his new tenure with back-to-back singles in his first two at-bats.
“It was good to see in his first day with us,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said about Arcia’s debut. “Got on base a couple times, [I] look forward to seeing that more often.”
With starting pitchers Ryan Feltner and Dollander currently on the 15-day injured list, right-hander Tanner Gordon made his second start in five days.
He couldn’t quite finish out the fifth inning, closing with two runs and six hits to his name. The pitching staff held Chicago to just two runs, but didn’t get any run support with the Rox scoring once in the sixth inning. They lost their fifth in a row 2-1.
“Pitching is right on point,” Schaeffer said after the series, continuing to stay positive during his 2-15 start at skipper, “We’re going to catch up with the bats.”
The 9-47 Rockies continue their road trip to Citi Field in Queens, New York, for a three game stop against the New York Mets. If the Rox lose games one and two, they would fall to 40 games under .500 before the month of June. Game one is on Friday, May 30.