DENVER (AP) -The Colorado Rockies have spent just two days over .500 all season, and here they are talking as if they have a chance at the playoffs.
“Why not?” infielder Jeff Baker said, harkening to last year’s remarkable 21-1 run to the World Series and suggesting an encore is possible in the middling NL West.
“The mood is we are confident and that we’ve been here before,” shortstop Troy Tulowitzki concurred. “Why not again?”
The Rockies, who haven’t had a winning record since April 19, entered the final three-week stretch of the season just six games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers despite being 10 games under .500.
That’s exactly how far out they were out of first place last year at this time, and they were 6 1/2 games off the lead when they began their remarkable run, which included a one-game tiebreaker win over San Diego for the NL wild card and playoff sweeps of Philadelphia and Arizona to reach their first World Series.
, and once you’ve done something before, you definitely have confidence in your team and in yourself that you can do it again.”
Manager Clint Hurdle hasn’t bothered to mention last year’s run to this year’s team.
“I don’t have to do that at all,” he said. “We lived it.”
And if last year proved anything, it’s that you’re not out of it until the last out.
“It lets you know you’re still in the race,” right-hander Jeff Francis said. “Crazy things can happen.”
The NL pennant has been flying tauntingly over Coors Field during a summer filled with injuries and maddening inconsistency. Yet, as the leaves start to turn and the cold, crisp nights that smell of fireplace smoke start to settle in, this dismal division gives Colorado hope for another magical “Rocktober.”
“Everyone in here believes we can still do it,” infielder Clint Barmes said. “Last year proved anything can happen.”
Following their three-game series at Atlanta that began Tuesday night, the Rockies return to Coors Field for a nine-game homestand against the Dodgers, Padres and Diamondbacks that should render then contenders or pretenders once and for all. They finish up on the road at San Francisco and Arizona.
we want to have a chance to get back into the postseason.”
“We would like to think that we haven’t played our best baseball, either,” Tulowitzki said. “It’s still ahead of us and any time you’re trying to catch teams, there’s not a better way to catch them other than playing them.”
Forget that they’ve failed to live up to their own lofty expectations. Forget that the turnstile-like rotation was regularly rocked save for ace Aaron Cook. Forget Todd Helton’s bad back that landed him on the DL, Franklin Morales’ disdain for mixing his pitches that landed him back in the minors, Tulowitzki’s freak injuries, the revolving door at second base, the pitiful hitting in the clutch, the bad baserunning, the bullpen blowups that cost Manny Corpas his closer’s job.
Despite their record and their struggles for the first five months, the Rockies find themselves within striking distance, and that’s all any team can ask for heading into the stretch run.
The Rockies, who were 19 games below .500 on June 30, started to turn things around when third baseman Ian Stewart was called up from the minors for a second time this summer after Helton went on the DL with a bad back. With Garrett Atkins moving over to first base, the Rockies starting to win again.
But really it’s the struggles of their fellow NL West teams that has them thinking they can salvage their season.
minated or close to it.
“We just have to show up and win, and that’s all we have to do,” Francis said. “We just have to do our jobs, do the same thing we’ve been trying to do since April. What’s done is done, we can’t change that, just come here every day and play hard.”
Deep down, the Rockies, more than any other team in baseball, know it’s not all just happy talk.
“The position we’re in, we’re not out of it,” Hurdle said. “We have areas we need to improve in, and as long as we stay focused on our own game and improve our own game, that’s what gives me hope, that’s what keeps my focus acute. It’s not so much hoping other teams don’t play well. We need to play extremely well and finish with a flurry.”
Like last year.
“We want it to be Rocktember,” Hurdle said. “You laughed at Rocktober, and look how that turned out.”
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