Phoenix – The night began with manager Clint Hurdle sending a message and ended with the Rockies making a statement.
Even without two disciplined starters, the Rockies white- knuckled a 5-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, further illuminating one of the finest road trips in franchise history.
The last time a Colorado team went 5-1 on a roadie had been 2000, when only one player in Thursday’s lineup was even in the big leagues. The victory left the Rockies perched alone atop the National League West and left the following sentence to be uttered for the first time ever: Do they really have to go home?
“The numbers don’t lie. We haven’t been a good road team,” said closer Brian Fuentes, who recorded his second save. “But at some point you know that one team is going to figure it out. Why can’t it be us?”
If such dominance in visiting ballparks were simple, the Rockies would have long ago gone to Mapquest and printed off step- by-step directions to avoid spoiling their seasons.
The remedy, instead, was muscle. Outfielder Brad Hawpe homered for the fourth consecutive game, one shy of the record shared by Larry Walker and Dante Bichette. On Thursday alone, the Rockies cranked out nine extra-base hits.
“It feels good,” said Hawpe. “This is why we believe we can have a special season.”
The kind of numbers the Rockies posted over the past week conjured up images of those old Blake Street Bombers, the only Colorado team to tiptoe into the playoffs.
In the six road games, the Rockies hit .329 (76-for-231) with 12 home runs. They outscored the Padres and Diamondbacks 47-25. It’s impossible to overstate the novelty, if not brilliance of this stretch. This is a Rockies team that scored only 289 runs on the road all of last season. They batted just .232. Compare that to this past week when not a single opponent’s starter worked six innings.
Are the Rockies forging a new identity?
“I think our identity is already established. We are a team that people have to deal with and take seriously,” center fielder Cory Sullivan said. “It’s not just talk. We are talented.”
With that in mind, Hurdle is holding his players to a higher standard than a year ago, when he was breaking in a roster burping rookies. Hurdle benched outfielder Matt Holliday, arguably the club’s most highly regarded young slugger, and catcher Danny Ardoin for baserunning mistakes in Wednesday’s loss.
Holliday entered Thursday’s game as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning, promptly doubling.
“Lesson learned,” Hurdle said. “We all move on.”
In the eighth, the story would have turned sour on past Rockies teams. Setup man Jose Mesa flirted with danger, but was left in to face left-handed sluggers Chad Tracy and Luis Gonzalez. He wiggled out of trouble, leaving Fuentes to provide the trip’s exclamation point.
“Now we need to go home and play well,” Fuentes said. “It’s nice to be saying that for a change.”
Staff writer Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-820-5447 or trenck@denverpost.com.
