BOX SCORE

For a moment, it looked as if the Cubs were going to pull off their first three-run comeback in nearly two months when they tied the game at Coors Field on Sunday.

But like a recurring bad dream, they were walked off for the second time on the road trip, falling 6-5 and coming up short at the chance to complete the sweep of the Colorado Rockies.

The Cubs completed the road trip with a 5-4 record, failing to capitalize on another Milwaukee Brewers loss and thus not making up any ground in the NL Central.

Here are three things we learned from a rollercoaster of a series finale:

Bad, bad news

While most of the Cubs’ hitters saw success over the road trip, Daniel Palencia bore the brunt of its low points. 

It started in San Francisco, when Palencia came in with the game tied and allowed three-straight singles as the Giants walked off the Cubs to complete the sweep. 

With the game tied in the bottom of the ninth, the chance to hold on to send the game to extra innings and complete the sweep in Colorado, Palencia came in once again. He had completed the save on Saturday night, so why stop there? 

But on Sunday, Palencia’s outing mirrored that of his in San Francisco — only this time, it took the Rockies just two hits — a single and a triple — to walk it off. As the ball careened off the right field wall and Tucker struggled to come up with it, a sea of purple surrounded Palencia on the mound as he walked off with his head hanging for the second time in four games. 

Rocky road

Matthew Boyd has been an absolute force in the Cubs’ rotation in 2025.

But the lefty’s recent numbers have been very out of character for the Boyd that’s shown up for Chicago the majority of this season. 

In his past seven starts entering Sunday, Boyd was carrying a 1-4 record with a 4.82 ERA over 37.1 innings pitched. Those figures are a far cry from what the All-Star was twirling before that — take his 1.97 ERA in July or his 1.78 ERA in June as examples.

On Sunday, Boyd was making his first career start in baseball’s most hitter-friendly park. The objective, just as it was for Cade Horton and Javier Assad in the first two games of the series, was to limit the damage and let the Cubs’ hitters go to work. 

The Cubs jumped out to grab two early runs to give Boyd — who retired the first six batters he faced — a cushion in the third. But Colorado answered right back via an RBI bunt single and a two-out knock that scored a runner before Pete Crow-Armstrong threw out Ezequiel Tovar in no-man’s land to end the inning. 

The fourth inning is what really drove up Boyd’s pitch count. A two-out walk snowballed into two more runs for the Rockies: One came from a 104.5-mph triple off the wall and the other a 74.6-mph bloop single. A pop-out finally ended the frame for Boyd, but he had already thrown 71 pitches. 

Boyd, did, however, bounce back with two quick frames in the fifth and sixth to alleviate some pressure on the strained bullpen. 

His final line was as follows: 6 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. He threw 91 pitches, 62 for strikes.

It’s all Happ-ening

If there was ever a time for Ian Happ to clutch up, it was the eighth inning on Sunday. The Cubs trailed by three runs, and the chance to sweep was slowly slipping out of their grasp. 

Up stepped Ian Happ with a golden opportunity at the field at which he’d seen a lot of success throughout the series. 

Happ took that opportunity and didn’t look back. 

With one swing, Happ turned on a first-pitch fastball to send it out of Coors Field in a hurry — 106.7 mph off the bat, and it traveled 429 feet into the left-center stands. Home run No. 18 on the season for the switch-hitter knotted the game at 5 and brought the Cubs right back into a game they had trailed since the fourth inning. 

Like Tucker, Happ was on a tear at Coors — his home run made him 6-for-12 (.500) across the series with two home runs and six RBI. 

It’s part of a larger sample from Happ in which he seems to have found his form at the plate: 

• Last 7 games: .333/.448/.750 (1.198 OPS)

• Last 15 games: .286/.426/.531 (.957 OPS) 

• Last 30 games: .265/.371/.490 (.861 OPS)

The Cubs will head right back to Wrigley Field on Monday to take on the Atlanta Braves for the first time this season. Colin Rea (10-6, 4.23 ERA) is set to take the ball for the Labor Day opener at 3:05 p.m. CT. 

Coverage begins at 2 p.m. on Marquee Sports Network.