You want an explanation? Seriously?
You’ve followed the Rockies the last four years and you still want an explanation?
Fine. Here you go, courtesy of pitcher Jason Hammel:
“It’s Denver, it’s Colorado, it’s the Rockies in September. It’s ridiculous.”
Yes, it is. The Rocks went 20-8 in September 2007 and 18-9 last year, rocketing into the playoffs both times. They are 10-2 so far in 2010 and 58-33 over the past four. Nobody in America enjoys September more than they do.
Sunday, as they won their 10th in a row to move within 1 1/2 games of first place in the National League West, it didn’t come easy.
“Streaks like this, you win all kinds of different ways,” said manager Jim Tracy, who lifted Dexter Fowler with two outs in the bottom of ninth to give Jason Giambi a couple of swings at Diamondbacks reliever Sam Demel, which is all he needed.
“The way Jim uses me late in the game, it’s like the last bullet,” Giambi said after his walkoff homer to center field made his manager look prescient, and not for the first time.
“I was looking for an opportunity to fire Jason,” said Tracy, extending a politically incorrect firearm metaphor.
For much of the current streak, the Rocks have been carried by their biggest bats, but Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki can’t do everything. So, as the streak has grown, they’ve thrown in unplanned steals of home, Bermuda Triangle bloopers and 0-for-16 skeins, which was Giambi’s line against Arizona pitching before his ninth-inning at-bat.
The Rocks never would have been in a position to win in the ninth without Ryan Spilborghs’ two-out, pinch-hit, seeing-eye pop fly in the seventh, which bounced off Diamondbacks shortstop Stephen Drew’s glove and plated the tying runs.
Not only that, the only reason Giambi got a chance to hit in the ninth was because Diamondbacks second baseman Kelly Johnson booted Jonathan Herrera’s one-out groundball earlier in the inning. Otherwise, Clint Barmes’ strikeout would have sent the game to extra innings.
As the song says, there’s something happening here.
“I thought we were going to win the game, I’ll tell you that,” Tulowitzki said. “Just the way things have been going, Spilly’s ball falling in, things have been going our way, and you kind of feel the momentum changing. They don’t really have anything to play for and we’re on the ropes here, trying to get in the playoffs. So it’s two different levels of energy, it seems like. One team’s desperate and one team can’t wait for the season to be over.”
Giambi, four months shy of 40, waited three hours for that 1-1 pitch.
“It was like a backdoor cutter that just really didn’t do much,” he said. “The first one he threw me was incredible. It almost hit me in the back foot. I told myself, ‘Try to get the ball up,’ and luckily he just left it enough out over the plate and I stayed on it, and I didn’t miss it.”
Even with expanded September rosters, everybody is a part of this thing now. Rookie Chris Nelson with his instantly immortal steal of home. Herrera, the utility man who drove in the winner Saturday and scored it Sunday. Esmil Rogers, Joe Beimel, Matt Belisle, Rafael Betancourt and Huston Street, who held the fort Sunday with five scoreless innings out of the bullpen until Tracy could fire his last bullet.
“We can’t come to the ballpark every day and sit there and wait for Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki to pick us up and carry us across the finish line, and I think every guy in the clubhouse realizes that,” Tracy said. “If you have a Rockies uniform on and it’s the month of September, I won’t be shy about using you, I promise you that.”
Once again, the Rocks have saved their best for last. After thrashing around the .500 mark for five months, suddenly they are a season-high 15 games over, with their next three against the stumbling Padres, who are now tied with the Giants atop the division.
A third postseason trip in four years is still far from a gimme. Ten of the Rocks’ remaining 19 games are on the road, which hasn’t been kind this year. But at this point, they’ll take their chances.
It’s the Rockies in September. It’s ridiculous.
Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297, dkrieger@denverpost.com or
