The magic number is 85.
So, some fool asked manager Clint Hurdle after the Rockies beat Arizona 8-4 on a dog day afternoon, has he calculated how many victories will be required for Colorado to make the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade?
“I’ve got a number in the back of my mind,” Hurdle said Thursday, while wearing his best poker face.
“So do I,” I countered, refusing to say more in front of a gang of reporters gathered for the postgame news conference.
“We’ll share it afterward,” Hurdle promised.
In a hallway outside the clubhouse, as the Rockies packed bags for a road trip, I tracked down the manager and revealed my magic number for a playoff berth in the National League West, where any team that can remain standing will stay in the race for the division title or a wild-card berth.
“I’ve got 84 wins,” I told Hurdle. “That’s my number.”
Breaking into a grin, Hurdle said, “I had 85.”
“Mine is 84, because I’m generous,” I said, knowing full well the Rockies have accused me of many things through the years, but never found me guilty of runaway optimism.
“You are generous,” Hurdle said, with as much sincerity as the man could muster.
The Rockies? In the playoffs? With 85 victories? This year? Are you kidding?
Sure, there are serious reasons to doubt it can happen.
Hurdle, however, almost defiantly stresses how his team refuses to go away. After shelling Arizona starter Brandon Webb, one of the few staff aces the Rockies have been able to hang a loss on all season long, Hurdle said: “There’s probably somebody in Vegas running around, slapping their head right now, wondering how the Rockies did it.”
On a night in September, when the game is tied in the bottom of the eighth inning, as everybody in the stadium tries to focus one eye on the batter at the plate while letting the other eye sneak a peek at the scoreboard, I’m afraid the Rockies will regret not acquiring a big bat at the trade deadline.
Making a deal to improve Colorado’s playoff chances while the National League is at its weakest in general manager Dan O’Dowd’s lifetime and preserving a commitment to build the Rockies for the future did not have to be mutually exclusive goals, as apologists for the team have suggested. Did the Los Angeles Dodgers mortgage their future to obtain Greg Maddux, a pitcher with a résumé already on file at the Hall of Fame?
At least one seriously flawed NL team, and almost certainly two, will be filling stadiums with postseason tension this year. The Rockies better crash this party while the bouncer’s snoozing and there’s no cover charge.
It would be a crying shame if the franchise wasted the best starting pitching of its brief history.
Jason Jennings figures to post a career-low ERA. Hitters might never get less wood on pitches by Jeff Francis than they are doing now. Aaron Cook has shown more durability than bad breaks of poor health have previously allowed. Josh Fogg waited until he was 29 years old to throw his first shutout in the majors.
What are the odds of every pitcher in Colorado’s starting rotation doing the best work of his career in the same year? Wait for 2008? The Rockies would be foolish to waste this opportunity.
Stuck three games under .500 in the middle of August, Colorado must produce a record of 26-15 to finish the season with the 85 victories coveted by Hurdle.
The feat sounds improbable. And it will be nearly impossible, unless the Rockies can put together a torrid stretch in which they go eight, nine or 10 days with no more than a single loss.
“Every day I wake up I keep waiting for that to happen,” Hurdle said.
What will prevent the Rockies from getting on a hot streak and be the contenders these players believe they are right here, right now?
“With our starting pitching, there’s no reason. It’s just a matter of us swinging the bats. That’s basically all it boils down to is us swinging the bats and giving us a legitimate chance to win games,” said Todd Helton, his own bat finally so unmistakably hot the Diamondbacks issued him two intentional walks in the same game.
Can the Rockies really win 85?
It will require magic. But not a miracle.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-820-5438 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
