Road construction: Cubs hit another pothole, suffer fourth straight road loss, 6-5 to Rockies

DENVER — Must be lumpy hotel pillows. Or bumpy bus rides.

Maybe the Astros were simply too good, St. Louis too boring, Colorado too . . . high?

Whatever the excuses, the Cubs went to bed in second place in the National League Central on Monday night because of their habit of finding hazards whenever they venture out of Wrigley Field.

On this night, as they opened a seven-game trip out west, they could blame starter Yu Darvish for spitting up a four-run lead as soon as he got it. Maybe they could even blame the bullpen again.

Either way, they ended up right where they have so often in recent weeks on the road, with a one-run loss — this time 6-5 to the Rockies after the go-ahead run scored in the eighth like this:

• Double bounces off first base.

• Aging, plodding Daniel Murphy steals a base.

• RBI single by Ryan McMahon.

The Cubs lost for the fourth consecutive time on the road, and it was their third one-run loss in that stretch. It also dropped them a half-game behind the idle Brewers in the NL Central and dampened much of the feel-good mojo created during a 6-1 homestand that included the signing of Craig Kimbrel.

“We just have to gain more consistency,” manager Joe Maddon said of the feast-at-home, famine-on-the-road disparity for the Cubs, who have lost six of their last seven on the road and nine of 12. That makes them 13-17 on the road — worst among any team within four games of a division lead.

Meanwhile, they have the third-best home record in the major leagues at 24-11.

“There’s not an intimidation factor [on the road],” Maddon said. “Just, for whatever reason, we just have not gotten over the other teams on the road, and we need to do that.”

For a span of about 10 minutes, it looked as if the Cubs might carry their homestand magic into high-altitude Coors Field. David Bote, Kyle Schwarber and Anthony Rizzo all homered in a four-run third inning for a 4-0 lead.

Darvish? The $126 million enigma pitched impressive, scoreless baseball for five of his six innings. The third inning was the exception; he gave back four quick runs on a pair of two-run homers by Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado.

“Yeah, that sucks,” he said. “Especially after we score four runs with three homers.”

It has been a trend in three of his last four starts.

“I don’t know why,” Darvish said. “I have to find out. So next time we score, I will go 120 percent for that inning.”

The Cubs opened the season 2-7 on the road. They’re 1-6 in their last seven road games. In between, they went 10-4 on the road.

So maybe not that bad?

Not so fast. Those 14 games in between included three wins against the Marlins, the worst team in the National League; two wins against the reeling Mariners; and a 2-1 split with the struggling Nationals.

“We’re playing so well at home. We’ve just got to pick it up a bit [on the road],” Maddon said. “It’s not through lack of effort. The Cardinals beat us 2-1, 2-1 [in back-to-back games]. We’ve just got to get that winning vibe going on the road and move on from there.

“The group’s in a good place right now, so I’m eager to see. We’ve got two great teams we’re playing right now, so it’ll be fun to watch how we react to this.”