On a trip to historic Wrigley Field, the Rockies climbed up to the top of the iconic scoreboard, learned about the challenging Chicago winds and sent their rookies out on a friendly hazing coffee run.

Then the two bad teams played two rounds of ugly baseball in the rain for over eight hours that ended with Colorado’s Kyle Freeland, yes that’s the starting pitcher Kyle Freeland, playing in right field.

The Rockies dropped the first game to the Cubs 5-2. But in the second game, the Rockies and Cubs played on. For over four hours in fact, in what was originally supposed to be a quick seven-inning express.

In the end, after a ride on the emotional roller coaster, the Rockies won 13-10. Ryan McMahon came up clutch, hitting just his second home run since mid-June to help give the Rockies a 13-9 lead in the 10th inning.

Manager Bud Black admitted that players, specifically CJ Cron and McMahon were mad and frustrated at times. But two teams miles out of playoff contention played on, and in the end the Rockies get a happy flight to Los Angeles, even if it’s a very delayed one.

“They never lost the fight,” Black said. “We were down. We were up. They were pissed. We were fighting.”

The game went from thrown helmets in the second after the Rockies gave up five runs, to celebrations after Connor Joe hit his first career grand slam in the fourth. Then back to despair, after Daniel Bard blew a three-run lead to send the game to extra innings and again high-fives after they somehow managed to salvage what seemed to be an unwinnable game.

“There was no quit in the dugout,” Joe said. “Took some punches there but we kept fighting.”

The Rockies are not ready to say Bard is out of the closer role. But they are going to reevaluate.

In the first round of extras, it seemed like Dom Nuñez, their last bench player, was going to be the hero, hitting a single up the middle to score runner Garrett Hampson. But the Cubs countered with a run of their own.

Ben Bowden pushed through the ninth, and McMahon, who struck out on an iffy third-strike call earlier, hit a home run.

“I think the baseball gods gave me another chance,” McMahon said. “I didn’t want to mess it up twice. It doesn’t feel good to let your teammates down. I just locked in to make sure I came through for them.”

Freeland got his moment to shine, hitting a bunt single and scoring a run to cushion the Rockies’ lead. He stayed in the game, heading out to right field, where he got to partake in the traditional running celebration jump with the other outfielders.

A team obviously never wants to send out a starter to be a position player, especially the game before he has to take the mound. But Trevor Story, after hurting his leg running to first in the top of the inning, needed to come out and they had already used every other player on the bench. The Rockies think Story will be fine, and Freeland got to have some fun.

“He played great defense,” Black jokingly said, even though a ball never came near his southpaw. “The way that game unfolded, we had to do everything we could.”

This was not at all what the Rockies had planned for the doubleheader, hoping to rely on their starting pitching, typically their most reliable group, to carry them through the seven-inning games. They originally had Germán Márquez scheduled for the early game and Austin Gomber in the late game, but made a last-minute change Wednesday morning. Márquez has not pitched well in the first game of doubleheaders this year, and they decided to try a mental switch for him. It didn’t pay off.

Gomber, meanwhile, allowed two runs through the first five innings in the first game to keep the Rockies and Cubs tied 2-2. Then Patrick Wisdom hit a low-hanging slider with two outs straight out of the park for a three-run homer. Gomber knew right away that it was gone, jumping off the mound in frustration and mumbling some choice words under his breath as he headed into the dugout with his team down 5-2.

“It just seems to be just one of those periods for me where I’m having a hard time getting the results that I want,” Gomber said. “I felt like my stuff was fine today, obviously I got some strikeouts and and got out of some spots, just didn’t make the pitch when I needed to.”