“Seven Days in May” was a fictional American political/military crisis set in 1974.
“Fourteen Days in May” is the factual Rockies’ players/management crisis in 2007.
Crisis: A time when action must be taken to avoid complete disaster.
The next two weeks are critical to the Rockies’ season – and future.
Four opponents, 13 games in 14 days, seven at home, six on the road. On May 31, one-third of the season will be complete, and the Rockies must avoid complete disaster by then.
The Pet Rox cannot continue to writhe and squirm as they have all this season and once more on Thursday afternoon against the Arizona Diamondbacks. No offense, but the Rockies lost 3-1 because of no offense – again. They have scored three or fewer runs in nine of 20 home games, and they have a 9-11 record at home.
Today, there will not be the usual hue, or cry, from Alice’s Queen of Hearts demanding “Off With Their Heads.”
Let’s examine the Rockies’ crisis calmly, in a straightforward baseball way.
The Rockies are 17-24 and eight games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West Division. They have dropped four of the seven games on the current homestand. The Rockies have a three-game interleague series this weekend with the Kansas City Royals, who are even worse than the Rockies, before playing six games, sandwiched around the off-day, at Arizona and San Francisco. They then come up for 10 home games, beginning with four against the (equally) lowly St. Louis Cardinals, with the finale on May 31.
Get well or get lost, that’s the situation.
If the Rockies play and score at about their present pace (.415 winning percentage), they will win one or two games against the Royals, one of three in Phoenix, one of three in San Francisco and maybe two of four against St. Louis.
If they win six of the 13, the Rockies will own a 23-31 mark after 54 games of the 162-game schedule. And they probably would be at least 12 games out of first place.
Teams don’t often win their division when they are in last place and a dozen games behind on June 1. What about being a wild- card contender? Given that potential scenario, the Rockies would be trailing the three division leaders and at least nine other National League clubs. The runner-up team in the NL East – the Mets or the Braves – seems to be the most likely wild-card team.
The Rockies have not won five games in a row since July 2-6, 2004 – the longest current dubious streak of any of the major- league clubs.
Let’s think positive. Now is the time for the Rockies to get hot, hot, hot.
The pitching staff, settled in after injuries, call-ups and a trade, must do the same job it did in the past three games (three runs to Arizona in each). The offense must step up to the plate (pun intended), and the pinch hitters must hit better than the pitchers they bat for. (Three starting pitchers have higher averages than one of the club’s two principal pinch hitters). The Rockies have to hit with runners on base and hit more home runs. Thursday’s game was another sordid example of their inability to do so.
And the defense can’t make the errors on easy plays that lead to runs, as happened Thursday afternoon before a crowd dominated by youngsters who were cheering and chanting, then left crying and complaining.
The Rockies have to sweep the Royals’ series. Unfortunately, they haven’t swept a three- or four- game series this season. They have to go to Arizona and win the first two, if not all three games. After Arizona, they have to win at least two out of three, and preferably the last one, in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the Rockies have won the final game of a road series just once this season.
Then they return to LoDo for four against the Cardinals, who are not faintly close to resembling the 2006 world champions. When the sun is out, they don’t even make shadows.
The Rockies keep talking about putting their foot on somebody’s throat. But they’ve been choked, or gagged, all season. The Rockies must win all four against St. Louis.
Under that positive scenario, the Rockies would win 11 of 13 and finish May at 28-26 and probably be ahead of Arizona and San Francisco and barely behind San Diego.
June could be a boon instead of a swoon.
However, if the Rockies don’t get through the May-Day crisis, then a bunch of bodies connected with the franchise must admit their Grand Plan of ’07, just like the grand plan of other years, is a total flop, and that heads must roll during the Seven Days of June.
Staff writer Woody Paige can be reached at 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com.
