Meaningful games in September? After that scintillating April and May of theirs, it’s nice to see the Rockies playing meaningful games in June.
The Rox, in case you’ve gone into premature Broncos training camp mode, still are alive in the National League West. No, they’re not conjuring images of Rocktober, but they have a pulse. They still couldn’t see first place on a sunny day, but they’re officially hanging in there.
They’re getting healthy, what with Matt Holliday having returned to the lineup and Troy Tulowitzki and Clint Barmes scheduled to by the end of the week. And their starting pitching has become more than Aaron Cook and a series of coin flips.
We knew this wasn’t going to be easy. The encore, that is. The aftermath of 21 wins in 22 games. But who knew they were going to get off to that horrific start?
Things are turning around for the Rox. Slowly and gradually, not quickly and dramatically. The Rockies are doing what they did last season when times were tough. They’re staying together and they’re grinding.
They’ve won four series in a row. And no, it hasn’t come against a motley crew of bottom feeders. The Giants had won seven straight road games before arriving at Coors Field. The Brewers had won nine of 10. The White Sox were 20-9 at home before the Rockies’ arrival.
Two weeks ago, the Rockies were 20-38 and buried at the bottom of the division. Going into Monday night’s makeup game, they had won eight of 11. Now comes the most important stretch of their season.
Forget August and September. If the Rockies don’t stay on a roll into late July, they won’t be intact when the dog days arrive. Brian Fuentes could be gone in any scenario, but if things are looking grim in six weeks, others would join him. Maybe even Holliday, the most consistent run producer of the humidor era.
This is the fun part of the baseball season. This is when we see what a team is made of. We’ve seen the bad and the ugly side of the Rockies. But lately they’ve shown signs the worst might be over.
If so, they may yet make things interesting. If not, their season would end, for all intents and purposes, at the trading deadline.
