With two on and nobody out for Milwaukee in the top of the fifth Wednesday night, the crowd at Coors Field suddenly rose and started cheering.
The players, familiar with such non sequiturs by now, turned to look at the right-field scoreboard, where the “F” had just been posted by Florida’s 5-4 victory over Atlanta.
At that moment, midway through the Rockies’ game, Colorado’s magic number to clinch a postseason invitation was two. A little while later, after an old-time power display on the last night of September, it was one.
Which means that Aaron Cook, the Rocks’ career leader in victories, has a chance to deliver the clincher today in the club’s final home game of the regular season.
“He’s the right guy to have out there, especially the way he threw the ball his last time out,” manager Jim Tracy said.
This is especially fitting because the last time the Rocks made the playoffs, in 2007, Cook was a spectator. An oblique strain sidelined him for the last seven weeks of the regular season and the first two rounds of the playoffs. By the time he came back, the Rocks were down three games to none in the World Series.
Cook cheerfully took the ball, making his first start in almost three months on the game’s biggest stage. He pitched creditably too, although the Red Sox completed their sweep with a 4-3 victory.
Last year, when the Rockies went nowhere, Cook was their horse, going 16-9 for a sub-.500 team.
Fate seemed to have dealt him a bad hand again this year when he went down in August with a strained shoulder. But this time, he didn’t have to wait as long. A little more than a month after the Rocks shut him down, Cook returned to pitch five scoreless innings against St. Louis on Friday.
“He was saying something the other day about how somebody asked him if it hurt our chances that he got hurt,” right fielder Brad Hawpe said. “And he was like, ‘No, because the last time I got hurt we went to the World Series.’ “
Assuming the weather cooperates — an iffy proposition given the forecast — today’s game is not only an opportunity for the Rocks to clinch the third playoff berth in their history. It’s also a chance for Cook to cement his place in the postseason rotation.
Somebody’s going to get left out. Jason Hammel’s 10th victory Wednesday night gave the Rocks five starters with double-digit victories, but they’re going to need only four in a postseason they can guarantee with one more win or one more Braves defeat.
Ubaldo Jimenez and Jorge De La Rosa are scheduled to pitch Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles, which would set them up to pitch the first two playoff games next week on regular rest.
After that, Tracy will have to choose two starters from among Cook, Hammel and Jason Marquis.
Important as that rotation has been to the Rockies’ resurgence this season, the power of their offense is reappearing just in time. Wednesday they got home runs from veteran Todd Helton and youngsters Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki, a welcome harbinger a week from the first playoff game.
Gonzalez in particular has made the Rocks a much more dangerous team than they were when the season began. His triple leading off Wednesday’s game was hit so hard it sounded like a rifle shot. In the sixth, with the Rocks clinging to a 6-4 lead, he unloaded his 13th homer.
“He’s an electric player,” Tracy said. “This is a guy that is growing right before your eyes, just like Dexter Fowler has grown, just like Franklin Morales has grown, just like Ian Stewart is growing. He brings an awful lot to the table. Guys like this, they don’t come along every day.”
The opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings, but you could hear her clearing her throat in the blustery breeze that blew through Coors Field during Wednesday’s game.
After being 12 games below .500 on June 3, the Rocks are now 22 games over. Their 90th win tied the franchise record, set in 2007.
And today, the winningest pitcher in franchise history, a pitcher who has made a career of coming back from adversity, gets the chance he never had in ’07 to deliver the big prize.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297 or dkrieger@denverpost.com
