The top of the first inning wasn’t over yet, and the shivering crowd at Coors Field was already booing the home team.
Melvin Mora was sitting on the infield dirt, having just turned a routine double-play ball into one out instead of two. He had already let a hard-hit one-hopper glance off his glove into right field.
Giving the defending National League champion Phillies five outs instead of three seemed to symbolize the Rockies’ season to date, which was why the frigid crowd was so quick to react.
“There were a couple little things that we didn’t get done, and it looked like it was going to be the same game,” said Clint Barmes, who was subbing for Troy Tulowitzki at shortstop while Mora subbed for him at second base. “And when you’re facing a guy like that, you can’t be giving him anything.”
A guy like that would be Arvada West’s Roy Halladay, the Phillies’ ace who came into the game with a 6-1 record and 1.45 ERA.
So you’ll forgive manager Jim Tracy for clutching at the nearest straw and suggesting the Rocks may look back at Wednesday’s comeback 4-3 win in 10 innings as a pivotal point in the young season.
“There are games that spearhead a club and trigger a club in the direction that you know it’s more than capable of going,” Tracy said. “And this one may be just that one that we were looking for. We’re not at full strength just yet, but as I’ve said, nobody’s complaining about it.”
Aaron Cook reminded his teammates how to overcome adversity, working out of the trouble Mora made for him in the first and keeping the Rocks in it with six solid innings. Miguel Olivo reminded them how they used to come up with an unlikely hero every day, delivering the second five-hit game of his career, including the walkoff game-winner in the 10th inning.
And with the walking wounded slowly returning, there was a hint of blue sky for the Rocks, even on a snowy May day. More than a year removed from his last big-league start, Jeff Francis was back in the clubhouse. Huston Street put in an appearance between rehab assignments. Carlos Gonzalez, just back from the funeral of an uncle in Venezuela, was atop the batting order again, picking up where he left off with three hits.
While Tulowitzki was scratched from Tracy’s early lineup because of conditions better suited to skiing than baseball, he could be back as early as today.
But it was Olivo’s walkoff winner off the Phillies’ Chad Durbin that suggested the opportunistic teams that made the postseason two out of the last three years.
“It’s an exciting moment for me because not many people do that to Halladay,” said the veteran catcher, who got his first three hits off the Phillies’ ace.
In the early going, the Rockies’ difficulties in the field have been matched by their frustration at the plate. They went into Wednesday’s game batting .218 with runners in scoring position and two out — good for 13th in the NL. Playing down to their numbers, they left runners in scoring position four out of the first five innings, scoring only once.
They are also seventh in the league in fielding with 23 errors, which wouldn’t be so bad if they hadn’t been the best fielding team in baseball just three years ago.
“We’re just flat out not playing good defense,” Barmes said. “It’s very hard to win games that way.”
Tracy suggested it has to do with players playing out of position because of all the injuries. Mora, for example, has appeared at second base in only 40 of his 1,415 major-league games.
“We’re asking some people at times to do a little bit more in certain scenarios, whether it’s offensively or defensively, and they’re doing an admirable job of it in my opinion,” Tracy said. “But they’re also being asked to do a little bit beyond where you’d want to take them.”
Eric Young Jr. fits that description. But the rookie, who replaced an injured Mora in the fourth, started a slick double play with Barmes that ended the top of the 10th and set the stage for Olivo’s ballistic blast.
As the crowd rose to celebrate the walkoff win, it felt a little like old times. Tracy could only hope that mentioning it might make it true.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297, dkrieger@denverpost.com or
