San Diego Padres third baseman Morgan Ensberg is not shocked or awed by what the Rockies are doing. He’s seen it before, up close and personal.
In 2005, the Astros were 15-30 on May 24, prompting the Houston Chronicle to run an infamous story declaring the Astros dead and buried. A tombstone graphic accompanied the team’s premature obituary.
“Yeah, I remember the tombstone,” Ensberg said Sunday. “A lot of people thought we were done.”
But the Astros were just getting warmed up.
“We went through so much adversity that season, especially when Lance Berkman got hurt early,” Ensberg said. “But through all of that, we always knew we had talent, we always thought we had a good team. I think the Rockies faced that a little bit this year, but they believed in themselves.”
Ensberg enjoyed a career year in 2005, hitting .283 with 36 homers and 101 RBIs. He fueled the Astros’ 36-10 run to end the season. The Astros became the first team since the 1914 Boston Braves to make the playoffs after falling 15 games under .500 during the regular season.
The Rockies’ predicament was not quite as dire this season, but it was bad enough. On May 21, they were nine games under .500 (18-27).
“I think the Rockies did what we did,” Ensberg said. “They stayed with their lineup, they didn’t panic. Over a long period of time, their talent showed through.”
Ensberg’s Astros not only made the playoffs, they made it all the way to the World Series, before getting swept by the Chicago White Sox.
“When a wild-card team gets hot, you have to watch out, because that team’s playing with a lot of energy at just the right time,” he said.
Greetings from Byrnes. Eric Byrnes, the Diamondbacks’ freewheeling outfielder who helped lead his team to the National League West title, is thrilled the Rockies made the playoffs.
“That’s a good group of guys over there,” Byrnes said when the Diamondbacks came to Coors Field for a three- game series that finished the regular season. “They remind me a lot of our team.”
Now the Rockies and Diamondbacks are playing for the right to go to the World Series. The NL Championship Series begins Thursday in Phoenix.
Byrnes played briefly for the Rockies in 2005, hitting .189 with five RBIs in 15 games. But he was quickly traded to Baltimore.
“I was excited about playing in Colorado,” he said. “I wish it had worked out, but that was a crazy time in my career. Now it looks like it all worked out for the best.”
This season, Byrnes signed a three-year, $30 million deal that keeps him in Arizona through 2010.
Mighty pen. Rockies manager Clint Hurdle is calling the Rockies’ bullpen the best in his tenure with the team. The numbers back him up. During the three-game NLDS sweep of the Phillies, Rockies relievers held the league’s highest-scoring offense to two runs in 11 1/3 innings. The Phillies’ offense hit just .172 in three games.
Two aces. Thursday’s opener features two of the NL’s best pitchers: the Rockies’ Jeff Francis vs. the Diamondbacks’ Brandon Webb. Francis is 7-2 with a 3.54 ERA in 14 career starts against the Diamondbacks. But in the last meeting, on Sept. 28 at Coors Field, Webb outpitched him. Francis gave up four runs and seven hits in Colorado’s 4-2 loss. Webb went seven innings, giving up two runs on eight hits.
Record run. The Rockies have won 17 of their past 18 games, including their three-game sweep of the Phillies in the NLDS. The Rockies’ 14-1 streak to end the regular season tied the 1983 Phillies and 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record during the final 15 games of a season.
“They’ve got some real good players, and their streak at the end right now is probably one of the best streaks I’ve ever seen a team have, at the end of the season especially,” Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel said.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
