The Diamondbacks deserve to be like the weather – it will be a dark and stormy night – after the first two games of this series against the Rockies. They deserve their fate – it will be bleak and dreary – after their performance in the last two games of the regular season against the Rockies.
Unlike the Red Sox, the Diamondbacks are men without a Nation, backed by only a cluster of bottle-throwers and whine connoisseurs. Arizona must think down.
Rox Republic, meanwhile, should think UP.
Undefeated postseason? Best postseason team ever?
Mission Impossible 12 is improbable and implausible, outlandish and outrageous, preposterous and silly.
But any mission is possible with these Hot Rox.
Halfway home. Six down, six to go. The Rockies won the one play-in game, and now five consecutive playoff games. The next is tonight. With six more consecutive victories in a tidy row, the Rockies will own the greatest postseason run in major-league baseball history. No other team has gone undefeated in two league playoff series and the World Series – much less adding in a one-game playoff.
The 2005 White Sox lost one postseason game. The 1999 Yankees lost only one game (Boston) en route to the world championship. And the 1976 Reds, pre-wild card, won seven consecutive games.
But 11-0 in the postseason is unfathomable. But, then, 14 out of 15 (including the playoff tilt with the Padres) at the end of the regular season was unfathomable, as is 19 out of 20, which is where the Rox stand now.
And 24 out of 25 would be highly unununfathomable.
But fathomable in the Republic of Rockies.
The series shifts to Colorado, and Arizona has become the D.O.A.-backs. Dead On Arrival in LoDo.
No comebacks for the laying-on-their-backs Diamondbacks, and payback for the Rockies, whose only loss in the streak since Sept. 15 was to Arizona on Sept. 28. The D.O.A.-backs brought this mess upon themselves. They could have been playing the Padres or the Phillies now.
They rolled over, like a dog wanting its belly rubbed, in the last two games of the regular season. After Arizona clinched the playoffs on Sept. 28, Livan Hernandez, the starter tonight, brought out six bottles of Cristal (at $400 a pop) for the players to celebrate with, and that they did. The next night, the Rockies still were fighting for a playoff spot, and Arizona didn’t care.
Spot starter Edgar Gonzales was torched early and often and left after three innings. Two of the pitchers who followed didn’t make it to this series. Arizona lost to the Rockies 11-1, and some of us pressbox wags said that evening: “This will haunt the D-backs. Wait and see. They’ll have to play the Rockies.”
On Sept. 30, while four teams battled for a playoff spot, Arizona played just four of its regulars and substituted Yusmeiro Petit, who is nowhere to be found on the current roster, for scheduled starter Doug Davis. With reserves playing in the final innings, Arizona lost 4-3, which made the Rockies very happy and the Padres very unhappy. The Diamondbacks smirked, and Melvin shrugged.
The Diamondbacks must have been hoping they would play the Rockies in the postseason. Be careful what you wish for.
The Rockies should thank the Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who also gave up, for helping them get to the postseason.
Arizona is determined to win two of three this trip – there will be no Cristal in the clubhouse in Denver – and return to Arizona. Good luck. Shane didn’t go back.
The Rox aren’t looking ahead, but I’ll look back for them. They beat the Red Sox in two of three interleague games, 12-2 and 7-1. Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett were the losing pitchers.
Rox vs. Sox, because pessimism and disbelief have been transformed into optimism and belief – and UP thinking.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
