Did any of us see this coming??? After a 10-2 loss to the Florida Marlins on September 15th, the Colorado Rockies fell 4 1/2 games behind the San Diego Padres for the National League wild-card. Rockies elderstatesmen Todd Helton said at the time "These are desperate times. We have to play like a desperate team. Maybe we can get lucky and get some help."
Talk about some prophetic words... The Rockies did play like a desperate team those final two weeks of the regular season, winning 13 of their final 14 games. Other contenders such as the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves slumped badly to open the door some more. Trevor Hoffman of the Padres was within one strike of closing out the Rockies season on September 29th against the Milwaukee Brewers, but Tony Gwynn Jr. of all people tripled off of Hoffman to score Corey Hart (no, not the singer) to tie their game and send it to extra innings. The Brewers went on to win that game in 11 innings. A guy named Gwynn helping keep the Padres out of the playoffs? How bizarre is that??? Well, it happened! The Rockies won their next game, the Padres lost and both teams finished the season at 89-73. We all know what happened in the ensuing one game playoff. Trevor Hoffman blew a two run lead in extra innings, and the Rockies scored three times including the winning run on a play where home plate was not even touched. Nonetheless, the Rockies won that 9-8 thriller and made it into the post season.
The Rockies swept through the Philadelphia Phillies in three straight games last week, and completed a four game sweep of the N.L. West division-winning Arizona Diamondbacks last night with a 6-4 victory. The Rockies scored all six of their runs last night off of Diamondbacks starter Micah Owings in the fourth inning. Series MVP Matt Holliday's 3-run homer after a crucial error on a ground ball by firstbaseman Conor Jackson proved to be the blow which would be too much for the Diamondbacks to overcome. With the win, the Rockies have won 21 of their past 22 games, losing only once in the past month!!! That's remarkable.
Now the Rockies have to wait to see who they are going to play in the World Series. The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox in game three of their series last night to take a two games to one lead in the American League divisional series. Game four of that series will be on your local FOX affiliate tonight starting at 8:07 ET/5:07 PT.
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Good post... I learned a couple of neat things that I hadn't known about the Rockies awesome run...
(1) That one lost before the near-perfect string of wins was to the Marlins... interesting.
(2) There was a point where the Rockies were one strike of missing out on the postseason (though it had nothing to do with them and everything to do with the Padres). I didn't know this... Interesting about Tony Gwynn Jr., too.
I really want 'em to win this World Series.
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