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20
Sep/10

Colorado Rockies Miss a Chance

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There is quite a bit to be negative about after Sunday’s heartbreaking 7-6 loss in 11 innings to the Dodgers.

The Colorado Rockies had a chance to move within half of a game of the lead in the National League West.
In the fourth inning, the Rockies were staked to a 6-1 lead. They had finally found a way to get to Clayton Kershaw. Scoring two runs against the ace of the Dodgers would have been quite the feat, scoring six in four innings off of him constituted a minor miracle.
The game just had that feel to it.
After the Rockies scored six runs, it was like the offense packed it in. The sense of urgency that the team has been playing with for two weeks was suddenly gone.
When suddenly-struggling starting pitcher Jason Hammel started to falter, the Rockies were already in cruise mode.
It would be easy to lay blame on many people in this game. Jim Tracy, who failed to have Eric Young Jr. bunt when Ryan Spilborghs led off the 11th inning with a walk.
Hammel could be blamed for failing to put his foot down when the game was his to lose.
Even Paul Phillips could be blamed. His failure to find a Jay Gibbons strikeout in the dirt allowed him to go to first. The Dodgers scored three runs in the same inning, all with two outs.
Regardless of whose fault it is, the fact is, the Rockies needed this game.
Heading into Los Angeles, the idea was to win two out of three. In fact, most would have thought that it would be incredible for the Rockies to be able to get two of the games at a stadium where they have looked like the Dodgers’ little brothers for the better part of the past four years.
The problem is, the Rockies had the Dodgers on the brink of a sweep. They were winning 6-1. They had beaten Kershaw and they were cruising. Allowing the Dodgers to crawl back into the game was devastating.
Had the Rockies completed the sweep, they could have gone into Arizona knowing that even if they faltered and only won one game, they still would have had a successful road trip.
Now, however, the Rockies are forced to go into another venue in which they have struggled and find a way to pick up a series win.
The loss may come back to haunt the Rockies. Regardless of who or where the Rockies are playing, they are in a race against time. They need to win as many games as possible before Oct. 3. Having wins snatched out of their grasp like Sunday’s are devastating.
By no means are the Rockies done. They still sit just 1.5 games out of the National League West race.
They are more than capable of outplaying the Padres and the Giants the rest of the way home, but it would have been quite a bit better to be ahead of the Padres and barely behind the Giants.
What the season may end up coming down to is the three game series against the Giants at Coors Field next weekend. Regardless of what the Rockies do against the Diamondbacks, they are going to have to find a way to win two of the three games.
Looking ahead at the schedule fate would have it that the Rockies are scheduled to face Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito and Matt Cain during those three games.
With Jeff Francis forced to take the hill for the Rockies on Sunday, going out and winning on Friday and Saturday will go a long way for the Rockies’ postseason chances.

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18
Sep/10

Troy Tulowitzki continues amazing tear as Rockies route Dodgers

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This is officially ridiculous.

Troy Tulowitzki did it once again on Saturday. For the fourth time in the last two weeks, Tulowitzki blasted two home runs in the same game in leading the Rockies to a 12-2 victory over the Dodgers.
“Tulo” replicated Friday night, when in the first inning he roped a home run to left field with a runner aboard. In the 5th inning, he did it again, this time depositing a home run over the center field fence.
The 25-year old shortstop is as hot as any hitter has been for years. He currently owns 14 home runs and 33 RBIs in the month of September. That is the most home runs by any Rockie in any month in the history of the franchise. The 33 RBIs is the second most in any month in Rockies history. Matt Holliday drove in 34 runs in September of 2007.
Those are numbers for any month in the history of the club. Consider the fact that Holliday’s September ’07 run nearly earned him the National League MVP award and got his name on the radar. Without that month, there is a good chance that Holliday never signs the deal with the Cardinals that makes him a very wealthy man.
Holliday’s month was that productive, and yet, Tulowitzki has already hit more home runs than him and is one RBI short of his record…and it is the 18th of the month.
Think for a moment about what Tulowitzki is doing. In 1998, Sammy Sosa laced 20 home runs in the month of June. It was an incredible feat, something that people thought was impossible. If anyone still has doubts that Sosa was using steroids at that time, they have their heads buried in the sand.
In the post-steroid era, what Tulowitzki is doing may never happen again.
With 11 games to go in September, even if Tulowitzki slows down significantly, he has a chance to put up numbers that will take years for anyone to approach.
It is hard to put into words just how hot Tulowitzki is. There is no doubt that Tulo hitting behind Carlos Gonzalez is playing a large part in the offensive output. With Gonzalez picking up hits and RBIs at a rate that has put him leading the league in batting and RBIs, Tulowitzki is certain to get good pitches to hit.
The strategy is going to have to change for opposing teams. There is no way that they can ignore what Tulowitzki is doing. They are going to have to take chances and try to throw decent pitches to Gonzalez, which is exactly what the Rockies would like to see happen.
What might end up happening, if both players continue on the pace that they are at, is rare situations where Tulowitzki gets walked intentionally, even with Gonzalez on first base, or even with the bases loaded, as Barry Bonds was often treated to during his great home run streaks.
To put Tulowitzki’s month into perspective, his 33 RBIs in the month of September is the same number of RBIs that Todd Helton has on the entire season. It is more RBIs than all but six Seattle Mariners have in the entire season.
Tulowitzki is inevitably going to cool down, there is no way to stay as hot as he has been, but the fact is, his run is so well-timed that it may get him some MVP votes. He is also doing it at the exact perfect time for the Rockies. There is no stronger definition for carrying a team on your shoulders than what Tulowitzki has done so far.
If Tulowitzki had not gone down for 33 games with a broken wrist, the talk would certainly be focused on him as the National League’s Most Valuable Player.
The Rockies will wait for the results of both the Giants and Padres games, but they took care of their own business and cannot be any further back than they were when the day started on Saturday. The Rockies go for the road sweep on Sunday, facing Clayton Kershaw. The Rockies will send Jason Hammel to the mound, who is looking to rebound from a tough outing on Tuesday night against the Padres.
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18
Sep/10

Why the Colorado Rockies will make the playoffs

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One thing is certain, the Colorado Rockies like drama as much as a middle school girl.

After struggling throughout the majority of the season, the Rockies found a way to stay within striking distance. As the hole starting getting larger, the club went 8-2 on a 10-game homestand leading up to the All-Star break. They were within one error of being tied for the lead in the National League West when the break started.
Everyone in Rockies nation was thrilled. It seemed as if the team that had been basically mediocre the entire first half seemed to be hitting their stride. Then, the Rockies decided that taking off and mounting a dominant second half wasn’t going to be enough drama. So they proceeded to go 2-9 on the road trip immediately following the break.
They played better after that, but instead of being contenders, the best way to describe the Rockies was lurkers. They were on the outside looking in. However, with their history, everyone knew it wasn’t smart to write them off.
After Saturday’s nail biter, the Rockies are suddenly 1.5 games out of first place in the West and 2.5 games out of the wild card race.
Essentially what the race comes down to is this. There are four teams vying for two spots. The Giants, Padres and Rockies will duke it out for the National League West, while the Braves will look to overtake the Phillies in the National League East.
The reality is, the Braves probably won’t be able to catch the Phillies. Philadelphia is the only team in the league hotter than the Rockies. They have won nine of their last 10 and have increased their lead to three games.
So, essentially there are four teams trying to capture the final two spots.
The good news for the Rockies is that it seems like both the Braves and the Padres have peaked and are on their ways back down.
The Padres are a very good team. They have surprised nearly everyone in baseball with their success, but the reason nearly everyone picked them to finish far out of the playoff race was due to their extreme youth. That youth carried them for the majority of the season, but it is finally becoming the reason that they are fading.
There is no doubt that San Diego has shown the talent that they have and that they deserve respect, but Mat Latos, Clayton Richard and Wade LeBlanc simply cannot be asked to throw 200 innings apiece. With all due respect to Adrian Gonzalez, who is clearly one of the best players in baseball, the Padres lineup simply does not have the ability to carry the team.
Also, San Diego still has to play the first place Reds three times and they finish the season in San Francisco. It is easy to think that the Padres will have a tough time going more than .500 the rest of the way.
The Braves are also on a free fall. Tim Hudson is a Cy Young candidate, but Derek Lowe and Jair Jurrjens don’t scare anyone. Tommy Hanson is a good young arm, but is not extremely dominant yet. He will, however, keep the Braves in games.
The Braves recently lost two of three to the Nationals and seem to be struggling.
If those two teams falter, the Rockies should be able to sneak into the playoffs as the wild card at worst. Then, to capture their first ever National League West crown the Rockies will need to take at least two of three from the Giants next weekend at Coors Field. That will be a tall order, considering that the probable pitchers for that game are Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito and Matt Cain.
Either way, the way the Rockies get into the playoffs is to simply continue to stay hot. If they are able to win 90 games it should be enough to get them in. That means that, including Saturday, the Rockies must go 9-6 the rest of the way. That won’t be easy with only six home games remaining, three of which will be extremely tough against the Giants, the Rockies have their work cut out for them.
Regardless of what happens, it should be interesting to see what happens. The Rockies are clearly one of the hottest teams in the league, and if they can stay hot, they have a very good chance at sneaking into October.

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18
Sep/10

Colorado Rockies Provide Drama, but Beat Los Angeles Dodgers

by under MLB

The good news is, Matt Kemp still can’t hit a slider off the plate.

With the tying run at first base and Huston Street in trouble, catcher Miguel Olivo wisely called a slider away on a 2-2 count. Kemp waved at it and the Rockies had won the all-important first game of the three-game series with the Dodgers 7-5.
The victory gives Ubaldo Jimenez his 19th win of the season, despite not having his best stuff once again.
The Dominican labored through 6-1/3 innings, giving up four runs on six hits. He struck out six and walked three. The line wasn’t that bad, but it was not the Ubaldo Jimenez that the Rockies have seen the majority of the season.
The term “must-win” is thrown around all the time. Often times, the term is used when it really isn’t true. If there was a time to use that term, Friday night was it for the Rockies.
Both the Giants and the Padres were defeated on Friday night, meaning the Rockies had a chance to move to within one game of the Padres and a game and a half of the Giants.
It would be easy to argue that since those teams lost, a Rockies loss would mean that they didn’t lose any ground, which of course would be true.
However, not losing ground is a term that teams do not want to hear with 16 games to go in a season.
The fact is, the Rockies must take advantage of opportunities when both of the teams in front of them fail to pick up a win. With the Giants playing a plethora of games at home, the Rockies cannot afford to leave games they need to win on the table.
After the win on Friday, the Rockies are sporting a four-game winning streak on the road.
With 15 games to go and nine of them on the road, the Rockies must find a way to win at least nine more games. If they can somehow get to 90-72, they are going to be in a good position to make the postseason.
If a team wins 90 games and doesn’t get into the playoffs, a tip of the cap goes to the team that won more than they did.
The Rockies are more than capable of going 9-6 down the stretch. They have two games left in LA, then they move on to Arizona, a team in which they swept last weekend at Coors Field.
If they are able to find a way to get three more wins on the current road trip, they should be in a good position.
If this club can find a way to win both series on the road trip, they will be in a position in which they do not need to sweep the Giants, they just need to win the series.
With the goal of winning 90 games total, the Rockies do not need to sweep any series, they can take two-of-three in each series and then split the four-game set in St. Louis to end the season and they will be there.
Looking ahead, however, will get the Rockies in trouble. If they want to win their first ever National League West title they need to do one thing…win the game that they are playing that day.
It is another cliche that is thrown around far too often, but it also applies to this Rockies club.
On Saturday, the Rockies face John Ely and put Jhoulys Chacin on the mound. It is a game the Rockies should be able to win.
A win on Saturday would allow the club to go out and not have to press for a win against Clayton Kershaw, a tough lefty who has owned the Rockies throughout his young career.
The Rockies are in a good position, they are breathing down the necks of the teams in front of them, which puts quite a bit of pressure on them.
The Giants know that if they don’t win, they are going to be in a tough spot. The Padres know that if they do not win, they are most likely going to lose a game to either the Rockies or Giants.
For those looking to watch the Rockies game on television on Saturday, you are out of luck.
The FOX Saturday game of the week rules say that any game played at the same time as the nationally broadcast game will be blacked out.
Unfortunately for Rockies fans, radio is the only option for Saturday’s game.

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16
Sep/10

Troy Tulowitzki’s Two Homers, Seven RBI Lead Colorado Rockies Past San Diego

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Troy Tulowitzki is doing his best to make sure that he doesn’t get lost in the Carlos Gonzalez hype.

Gonzalez went 2-for-4 with two RBI and an intentional walk, but was an afterthought compared to Tulowitzki.

The Rockies shortstop, perhaps the best in baseball, continued his torrid September, belting two home runs and driving in seven runs in the Rockies’ 9-6 victory over the Padres, preserving playoff hope.

The reigning National League Player of the Week has hit 11 home runs in September, one short of the club record for any month. He has three multi-homer games in the last eight overall. To top it all off, Tulo has 27 RBI in September.

Keep in mind that the month is just half over.

So, want to know much respect there is for Carlos Gonzalez? Even though Tulowitzki had seven RBI and two home runs, the Padres elected to walk Gonzalez in the eighth inning in order to face Tulowitzki with the bases loaded.

“That was pretty crazy,” Gonzalez said. “He is swinging a really hot bat right now.”

The Rockies currently sit 2.5 games out of the National League West and Wild Card races. With a record of 80-64, the Rockies have 16 games remaining and still have quite the hill to climb.

Sure, 2.5 games really isn’t that far out. They can make that up in a week if everything works out right. The only problem is they aren’t in second place in either race. The San Francisco Giants are at least one game ahead of the Rockies, depending on the outcome of their game with the Dodgers. They also finish their series with LA on Thursday that will either gain or lose a half game, something the Rockies have no control of.

Assuming the Phillies run away with the National League East, there are essentially two playoff spots for four teams. The three teams battling it out for the NL West will eventually sort itself out. The two teams that come up short will be hoping that the Braves continue to struggle, allowing them to slide into the Wild Card.

The Rockies face a tough road. After a home stand that saw them go 8-2, the Rockies now only have six home games remaining and 10 games on the road, where their struggles have been very well documented.

Making the playoffs may take more than 90 wins. The Padres already have 82 wins and 17 games remaining, so they would have to go 7-10 to win under 90 games this season. That is not impossible, but unlikely. The Giants need to go 8-8 in order to finish with 90 wins.

That means the goal for the Rockies needs to be 91 wins. To get to that record, the club will have to go 11-5. That doesn’t seem like too tall of an order, except for what they would have to do on the road.

Regardless, the Rockies are going to need to continue playing their best baseball to get it, and needless to say, their series with the Giants in nine days at Coors Field will be of utmost importance.

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15
Sep/10

The Jim Tracy Honeymoon Is Over for Colorado Rockies

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It is September. Usually, that means fans of a team managed by Jim Tracy can let out a sigh of relief.

That is because it means that Tracy can micromanage to his heart’s content and still have enough players on the bench to make it work.

He proved everyone wrong on Tuesday night in a pivotal game at Coors Field.
It would be easy to blame Edgmer Escolona, the Rockies rookie pitcher who forgot to cover first base, for the loss.
That mistake did cost the Rockies the game, as a sacrifice fly scored the winning run. However, look deeper and the blame lies with Tracy.
Is the bullpen short on rest lately? Yes. Do some of the guys sitting out there need a night off? Absolutely.
The bullpen has been taxed in recent days with the shortcomings of the starting pitching. On Tuesday, Jason Hammel gave up 10 hits and four runs in just four innings.
The bullpen is definitely short. However, since when has Jim Tracy cared about saving arms? All season long he has run reliever after reliever to the mound on back-to-back-to-back days.
Matt Belisle has logged the most innings of any reliever in the game. Huston Street has been asked to pitch in non-save situations with the Rockies up by four or more runs in at least four occasions.
For the ultimate proof of Tracy’s taxation on the bullpen, talk to Manny Corpas. If he won’t tell you, ask Thomas Noonan, the surgeon who performed Tommy John surgery on the once-promising righty.
So all of a sudden, with the Rockies in the heat of a playoff battle, Jim Tracy decides it is time to make sure his arms are adequately rested.
Tracy mistake number one; after Manny Delcarmen had worked a phenomenal 5th inning in relief, Tracy allowed him to bat in the bottom half of the inning. It was Delcarmen’s first plate appearance in the big leagues.
The reasoning makes sense. The Rockies had two outs and no one on base, so if they could get another inning out of the right hander it would be very beneficial.
The problem with the logic, however, is that Tracy essentially gave up on the inning with a bench full of potential pinch hitters waiting to take a shot in a one-run ballgame.
Delcarmen quickly went down on strikes and headed back to the mound, where he pitched as well as could be expected for another 1-1/3 innings.
The odds of a pinch hitter coming up and getting a two-out rally may be slim, but why just give away the inning because there are two outs? One swing of the bat from someone on the bench could have tied the game.
Delcarmen batting for himself may have been unwise, but Tracy’s biggest blunder came in the ninth.
With the Padres sporting a two-run lead, Tracy went to Escolona to pitch the ninth. This is the same Escolona who made his Major League debut on Friday night in a blowout win.
Tracy chalked up Escolona’s mistake to being young and getting caught up in the moment. The question for Tracy is simple, why was someone who is young and susceptible to getting caught up in the moment in the game at that point?
The Rockies already faced a tall order in trying to score two runs off of Heath Bell in the ninth to tie the game, now they were forced to score three. That third run proved to be the difference, as the Rockies mounted a furious rally.
Why not go with Huston Street in that situation? These three games against the Padres should almost be treated as postseason games.
Down by two runs in the ninth, a team almost always would act as if it were a tie game and bring in their closer in order to make sure the game gets shut down.
Had Street been able to pitch the ninth and get out flawlessly, the Rockies may have been playing in extra innings on Tuesday.
Instead they went down 7-6, losing another game in the standings to the Padres and failing to gain a game in the wild card race on the Braves.
The Rockies seem to be playing with a sense of urgency, but Jim Tracy is managing as if they have three months to make up the gap.

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14
Sep/10

Colorado Rockies: All Good Things Must Come To an End, Streak Stops at 10

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Winning 11 baseball games in a row is tough to do in little league, let alone the big leagues.


On Monday night, in the biggest series of the season for the club, the Rockies dropped the opener of a three-game set to the Padres 6-4.

It is tough to complain after a 10 game winning streak. However, the Rockies fell victim to their old mistakes in the loss. Once again, they didn’t lose to the Padres, they lost to themselves.

Two errors cost them big time. The latter, a base hit to center field that Dexter Fowler mis fielded allowing runners to advance to second and third base. They both scored on a base hit up the middle.

It is tough to be hard on Jim Tracy as well. He deserves credit for pushing the right buttons during the winning streak. However, much of the reason the Rockies were on a winning streak seemed to be because Tracy was allowing the players to play the game. Often times, Tracy finds himself playing around with the numbers so much that he forces it too often. He often micromanages and gets himself in too deep to recover.

Hindsight is 20/20, but starting Jeff Francis in the all-important opener of the biggest three game series of the year was probably not the best of ideas. Obviously the injury to Aaron Cook made the decision a tough one. Esmil Rogers had been working out of the bullpen and wasn’t available to start and the other options, most likely Samuel Deduno, has never started in the big leagues.

However, Tracy opted for the veteran, even with a 60 pitch limit.

Taking a look at it, with all of Jim Tracy’s tinkering and micromanaging, his biggest flaw may be his commitment to veteran players.

Take a look at when the Rockies really got going. As good as he is defensively, when Clint Barmes was removed from the lineup to give Eric Young Jr. a shot at the starting roll, the Rockies got into a groove. The reason? Instead of having Barmes flail at sliders in the dirt in the eight hole, the club now had two of the fastest players in baseball at the top of the lineup.

Young may not be the best hitter in the world, but his speed makes up for some of his flaws. A routine ground ball to the left side requires a quick transfer and strong throw to avoid a base hit. When he and Fowler are able to get on base, both Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki see better pitches, allowing them to do what they have been doing for the last month.

Instead of giving Young a shot earlier in the season, Tracy continued to stick with Barmes.

It is not a knock on Tracy. His loyalty endears him to his players. It is something that many managers never even think about. However, there has to be a point in time where a veteran player has to continue to produce in order to see his name on the lineup card every night.

On Monday, Tracy rewarded the veteran Jeff Francis with a start, when the reality is, he probably wasn’t ready to be out there. Would Deduno have been any better? Maybe not. However, he is coming off a season in which he was the Texas League pitcher of the year in 2009. Talk to Sky Sox manager Stu Coles for one minute and he will rave about Deduno’s pitches.

The crazy thing is, the Rockies are still in a great spot. They are 2.5 games out of first place in the National League West and have a very good chance at chipping away at the Padres lead in the next two days. If the Dodgers would cooperate just a little bit and beat the Giants a couple of times in the next three days, the Rockies could be just a game or so out of the race with plenty of baseball left to be played.

It will be interesting.

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12
Sep/10

Colorado Rockies Keep the Pressure On, Win Again

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The Colorado Rockies continued their climb to the top of the standings on Saturday night, but it didn’t come the way most probably thought it would. The result, however, is the same for the Rockies, who came from behind in the late innings to win 2-1.

With Ubaldo Jimenez taking the mound against Rodrigo Lopez, who came into the game with an ERA in the mid fives, it looked like the Rockies should crush the Diamondbacks. Lopez, however, dominated the Rockies for six strong innings before allowing a Melvin Mora base hit and a Ryan Spilborghs double in the seventh inning.

Jimenez, for his part, only gave up one run, but struggled with his command all night long. When he did throw strikes, the Diamondback hitters did a great job of fouling pitches off to drive up the right-hander’s pitch count. Jimenez walked only one hitter, but was constantly behind in counts. At one point he had thrown a first pitch strike to just eight of the first 20 hitters that he faced.

The Rockies, however, seem to find a new way to win every single day. Just a few weeks ago these same Rockies couldn’t buy a win and made it look like they had no sense of urgency. Suddenly they have woken up, and they know they have some work to do to catch up.

With the Giants and Padres duking it out over the weekend in San Diego, it makes things tough for the Rockies. If they lose, they know that they will lose a game in the standings. At this point, that would be devastating. However, a win guarantees that they gain a game on one of the opponents in front of them.

Saturday night’s win guarantees that they club will go into a pivotal three-game set at Coors Field with the Padres on Monday with no more than a 3.5 game deficit.

The Rockies got hot at the right time, if not the very last possible chance that they had to get hot. However, no matter what they have done to get to this point, they cannot afford to take a game off. If they drop their series to San Diego. Losing two of those games would mean that the Rockies drop a game to the Padres and most likely lose ground to the Giants as well.

At that point, they would be heading into a six-game trip on the road with deficit of more than four games. Recovering from that is not impossible, but it would be very difficult, especially given the Rockies’ struggles on the road.

The nine-game winning streak has been fun for the Rockies and their fans. However, the work is far from done. They can ill-afford to come back down any time soon. Even if they were to overtake the Giants and the Padres, the reality is, they still have to win games to hold that lead up.

With an off day on Thursday, it may give the club a chance to take a breath. However, it would be easy for them to let up before then, they have not had a day off since August 26, the day after they swept the Braves at home. That seems like two months ago at this point.

Keeping focused will be just as difficult of a job for the Rockies. They must not let down or give in to the weakness that they might be feeling in their bodies after not only a long stretch of consecutive games, but a long season at this point as well.

Those three games against the Padres are the most meaningful three games at Coors Field all season long. If the Rockies win two of those, or somehow find a way to pull off another sweep, they will be in very good shape moving forward.

The consequences of losing, however, are not fun to think about for the club.

 

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11
Sep/10

Colorado Rockies, Troy Tulowitzki Pound Diamondbacks for Eighth Straight Win

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It doesn’t matter who is on the mound when an offense puts up 13 runs.

That is what the Rockies did to the Diamondbacks in a 13-4 win that featured two more Troy Tulowitzki home runs.

The victim this time was Arizona starter Joe Saunders. The lefty was acquired from the Angels for Dan Haren in late July, and, as many Rockies fans may remember, completely dominated the same Rockies team that he faced tonight back in June.

With the Giants 1-0 win over the Padres at Petco Park, the Rockies move to within 2.5 games of the division lead.

The Rockies have suddenly erupted onto the scene.

Just a week ago they were all but counted out of the race. They had lost to the Phillies in a wild 12-11 one-game makeup at Coors Field and had lost three in a row. That was the last time they lost.

The person responsible for the road to redemption would most likely be Carlos Gonzalez. He has carried the team offensively for the season. However, as he has fallen into a mini-slump, Troy Tulowitzki has picked up the slack.

On Friday night, he homered twice in a game for the second time this week. His home runs came a day after hitting the tying home run against the Reds, as the Rockies rallied all the way back from 5-0.

The shortstop now has eight home runs in his last nine games.

At 2.5 games out of the division race, it is scary to imagine where this team may actually be if the All-Star had not been hit by a pitch in Minnesota in June, causing him to miss six weeks of the season.

Tulowitzki is coming into his own right before fans’ eyes.

It took him a little while to find his power stroke after the injury, but clearly it is back. Neither one of his Friday night blasts were Coors Field home runs. Those balls would find the seats in any ballpark throughout the league.

After witnessing miraculous come-from-behind runs from this Rockies club in two of the past three seasons, it is almost becoming expected that this team is going to put it in fifth gear and find a way to make the playoffs in 2010.

If any team in the league can fall as far as 11 games out of the division in August, as the Rockies did, and then find themselves with a legitimate shot at winning that division, it is the Rockies.

The fact is, everyone who has watched them play all year knows that they have had the potential to be the team that they are right now. They have finally hit their stride.

All season long there has been a sense that they simply are not playing like the team that everyone knows that they can be. Suddenly, the Rockies have arrived.

With the Giants and Padres beating up on each other in San Diego over the weekend, continuing to play good baseball is of utmost importance for the Rockies. If they continue to win, they will keep their foot on the throats of the two teams in front of them, causing them to feel the pressure.

The real Rockies have finally shown up. They may be late to the party, but they are making sure that they don’t leave without their presence felt. Whether they showed up too late or not is still to be determined, but the Rockies don’t look like a team that is about to quit.

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9
Sep/10

Colorado Rockies Steal Sweep of Cincinnati Reds

by under MLB

Chris Nelson has been known as the shortstop that the Rockies drafted the year before Troy Tulowitzki. He had been a career minor-leaguer, battling injuries most of the way through his journey.

After Thursday, Nelson will be known for more than his minor league career.

In the eighth inning, after the Rockies had tied the game at five, Nelson came in to pinch-run for Jason Giambi, who had walked.

Melvin Mora got Nelson to third base on a hit-and-run, and that is when Nelson decided to change what he was known for.

With Miguel Olivo at the plate and the infield in, Nelson took off from third base. He slid to the plate safely, giving the Rockies a 6-5 lead that they would not relinquish.

At this point, there shouldn’t be any storylines left for the Rockies and September.

This team simply continues to find new ways to win. It is almost as if they purposely drop games in the early part of the season so that they can find a new way to make a run late in the season. Obviously, that is not the case, but it seems like it.

There has to be an answer for why the Rockies play with such heart in September, but seem so average the rest of the season. In 2009, it was a little bit of a different story. They were already leading the wild card race heading into the month, but were pressing forward in hopes of catching the Dodgers, who eventually won the division on the second-to-last day of the season.

The Rockies are currently four games out of first place in the National League West pending the outcome of the Padres and Giants game, who start a four-game set tonight at Petco Park. They gain a half game in the wild card race as well, but that race seems to be an after thought for this club.

It is easy to start looking at the scoreboard. However, there is still enough baseball left in the season that the Rockies don’t need anyone else’s help. This club simply needs to continue winning. Their current winning streak is at seven with the four-game sweep of the Reds.

If they can manage to continue winning and take two of three from the Diamondbacks, they will be guaranteed to have gained games on the teams in front of them.

The best case scenario for the Rockies is for the Padres and Giants to simply beat up on each other. If they split the series in San Diego, and the Rockies continue to win, they will be within striking distance of either team with three games left at Coors Field against each of them.

The key, however, is to not overlook the teams in which the Rockies are playing. The Diamondbacks may be the last place team in the National League West, but they still have a power-packed lineup and are very capable of beating the Rockies.

The win came courtesy of a rookie swiping home improbably. However, the win came as the Rockies came from behind for the third time in the series. On Monday, the team erased a 4-0 deficit to win, on Thursday the Rockies outdid themselves, coming back from 5-0.

Jason Giambi started the scoring with a two-run bomb to center field. After Carlos Gonzalez hit into a double play to end a bases-loaded threat in the seventh, the Rockies looked like they might fall short.

Instead, Troy Tulowitzki decided to take matters into his own hands, drilling an opposite-field, lead-off home run in the eighth. That got things going in the inning, leading to Nelson’s daring decision.

The Rockies are the cardiac kids, there is no doubt about that. However, if the Broncos were hoping for some of their fans back, they are going to have to wait another couple of weeks for the Rockies to show what they are going to do.

Regardless, the Rockies are making things fun. It will be interesting to see if they can pull this thing off.

 

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