Rockies in the series!

Slimdust · 10-16-2007, 09:38 AM

Quote:

The Colorado Rockies are roaring into the World Series like no team before them.

More momentum. More rest, too.

With their 21st win in 22 games, the relentless Rockies beat the rattled Arizona Diamondbacks 6-4 in Game 4 Monday night to sweep the NL Championship Series at chilly Coors Field.

The Rockies have now won their first seven games of the postseason, joining some elite company. Here are the most consecutive wins to start the playoffs (since 1969):
Team Streak Playoff Rec.
2007 Rockies 7 ?
1976 Reds 7 7-0*

1970 Orioles 6 7-1*
1999 Yankees 5 11-1*
1971 Orioles 5 6-4
* -- Won World Series

Series MVP Matt Holliday hit a three-run homer into the pine-filled rock pile in center field that capped a six-run outburst in the fourth inning, and Colorado was on its way.

Born as an expansion team in 1993, the wild-card Rockies are headed to their first World Series.

"They always say baseball is about confidence and we have a lot right now," outfielder Brad Hawpe said.

The Rockies have a record eight days off before opening the World Series at either Cleveland or Boston on Oct. 24. The Indians lead the ALCS 2-1.

"It was fun, this has been a great ride. We're not done yet," said Rockies first baseman Todd Helton, the face of the franchise who cradled the last out in his glove. "We're going to keep it going."

With their delirious fans waving brooms and towels, the Rockies joined the 1976 Big Red Machine as the only teams to start a postseason with seven straight wins. Colorado has won 10 in a row overall and lost only once since Sept. 16.

"It's unbelievable. I never dreamed I'd have this opportunity," Holliday said. "With this group of guys I'm so excited to be a part of it. This MVP award goes 24 other directions."

Just one strike from postseason elimination on the final weekend of the season, the Rockies have become a charmed team that seemingly cannot lose. This marked the sixth straight year that a wild-card club reached the World Series.

"This has been different. They're very, very unselfish, and they kept working together, working together and believing," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said.

Colorado had never won more than 83 games before going 90-73 this season and sneaking into the playoffs with a 9-8, 13-inning win over San Diego in the wild-card tiebreaker -- rallying for three runs against career saves leader Trevor Hoffman.

After sweeping Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs, the Rockies put a purple pummeling on a D-backs club that led the league with 90 victories.

"Once the sting of this subsides, we'll be able to reflect that we did have a great year," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said.

Ahead 6-1, the Rockies withstood Chris Snyder's three-run homer in the eighth. Chris Young doubled with one out in the ninth off closer Manny Corpas, but Stephen Drew popped out on a 3-0 pitch.

"If that's not the tying run, then I obviously don't let him swing," Melvin said. "But right there you know you're going to get a fastball, you know you're going to get a pitch to drive. He just came off it a hair and popped it up."

Eric Byrnes followed with a checked-swing grounder that shortstop Troy Tulowitzki charged. His throw beat Byrnes' headfirst dive, and Helton threw his arms in the air, a decade of disappointment finally forgotten.

"I'm not going to lie, my mind wandered a little bit," Helton said. "You've got to refocus. Sometimes you'd like to be a fan in that situation and sit back and enjoy it. You can't."

Corpas earned his second save of the series.

The Rockies are the first team since the 1935 Chicago Cubs to win at least 21 of 22 after Sept. 1, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

"There comes a point in time when a team is no longer hot, they're simply good," Arizona's Tony Clark said. "And I think that's what we saw with Colorado."

Before this season, the Rockies had just one postseason victory, back in 1995, when they were eliminated by Atlanta in the first round.

Now, they're riding into the World Series with astonishing momentum -- and to think, with two weeks left in the season, they stood in fourth place in the wild-card race and knew they had to win just about all their games to have a shot at extending their season.

Reliever Matt Herges, who resurrected his career in Colorado this summer, pitched two hitless innings for the win, and the Rockies' stellar bullpen closed it out -- but not before Brian Fuentes surrendered Snyder's homer.

With the Rockies trailing 1-0 with two outs in the fourth and runners at second and third, Hurdle made a bold move: He pulled his starting pitcher, rookie Franklin Morales, for a pinch-hitter.

Hurdle didn't have to worry about burning his bullpen because Game 5 wouldn't have been until Wednesday night. So he sent up rookie Seth Smith, who had only eight career at-bats when he was placed on the playoff roster.

Smith fell behind 0-2 in the count against rookie Micah Owings, then blooped a 1-2 pitch down the left-field line. Like everything else this October for the Rockies, it fell in the perfect place and ended Owings' streak of 19 scoreless innings.

"In the box score it'll look like it rattled the wall," said Smith, whose two-run double put Colorado ahead 2-1.

The Rockies caught another break when Arizona first baseman Conor Jackson couldn't catch Willy Taveras' easy grounder. The error set up Kaz Matsui's run-scoring single -- the eighth RBI of the postseason for a player once cast off by the New York Mets.

Holliday sent the sellout crowd of 50,213 into a frenzy when he drove Owings' slider over the center-field wall to make it 6-1.

Morales allowed one earned run on five hits in four innings. Though he didn't get the win, the Rockies improved to 8-2 in his 10 major league starts.

Owings, the first pitcher since Whitey Ford in 1953 to collect two four-hit games in the same season, lived up to his .333 batting average by legging out a single in the first and coming around to score on Jackson's two-out single in the third.

Owings had a chance to pad the D-backs' lead in the fourth but struck out to strand a runner at second. In the bottom half, he dived to field Yorvit Torrealba's dribbler and throw him out at first. Afterward, the trainer came out to take a look at Owings' left shin, but the right-hander stayed in -- only to soon fall apart.

With the Rockies celebrating their first pennant, four franchises remain that have never reached the World Series: the Mariners, Devil Rays, Senators/Rangers and Expos/Nationals.

The Rockies went 2-1 against Boston this season, outscoring the Red Sox 20-5 in a June series at Fenway Park. Colorado last played Cleveland in 2005, getting swept in a three-game set at Jacobs Field.

One night after a cold rain forced the grounds crew to dump three tons of dry dirt on the field, the grounds crew had a relatively routine workload under clear skies. It was a crisp 55 degrees at gametime.

The D-backs clinched their playoff spot on Sept. 28 at Denver and Melvin put out a diluted lineup the next two games while resting his regulars for the postseason. Melvin said he has no regrets about not trying to knock out the Rockies that weekend because his sole purpose was to get his team rested and ready for the Cubs, whom Arizona swept.

"It's really a remarkable run that these guys made," Melvin said. "They haven't lost a postseason game. It feels like they haven't lost in a month. I was talking earlier about trying to deflate that force field they have right now. They're on quite a confidence roll."

espn.com

Slimdust · 10-16-2007, 09:39 AM

I took a look and didnt see anything posted yet to my surprise.. This could be the story of the year. Rockies are on FIRE!

Anyone think the tribe or the sox can stop them?

Blitzkrieg · 10-16-2007, 11:32 AM

Of course they can stop them. The Sox and Indians both are playing at a high level. The Rocks are on fire though. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a team this hot. The A's had a 20-game winning streak a couple years back but it was just the regular season.

Dr. Giganto · 10-16-2007, 12:22 PM

I cannot believe how ridiculously hot the Rockies are right now. This shit is ridiculous. I'd love to see them win it all. I love their hitters, especially Matt Holliday, whom I've had a slight man-crush on for a few years now

CM Drunk · 10-16-2007, 12:54 PM

I know this is off topic, but Slim, did you choose that pick of Golddust BECAUSE of the stack of nickels pointing out of his tights? Or is that just coincidence?

Back on topic, I usually bash on the NL for playing inferior baseball to the AL. (and they do) But the teams that win the WS for the NL usually are like this, like FLA and AZ in 01 and 03. Only reason why StL won last year imo was because DET shit the bed completely. COL has a shot at winning the whole thing, no matter whether its us or Cleavland.

If FLorida could beat the Yankees in 03, thatn COL can definitley do damage.

Freak · 10-16-2007, 02:40 PM

I am so stoked on the Rockies right now, and I really hope the ALCS ends quickly so they don't lose any of this crazy momentum going forward.

Dr. Giganto · 10-16-2007, 03:07 PM

well, no matter what happens in the ALCS, the World Series starts on Wednesday (a week from tomorrow). So, if it goes 5 games or 7, it doesnt matter. The Rockies still have a 9 day layoff

Suntan Superman · 10-16-2007, 03:07 PM

I love the Rockies, I have since I knew Tulowitzki was going to be playing this year. You wanna talk about a crop of young talent, Holliday, Tulowitzki, Atkins, Ianetta, all can/could/are dangerous hitters and they have Ubaldo Jimenez and another guy i can't think off the top of my head for hitters

Dr. Giganto · 10-16-2007, 04:50 PM

Jayson Stark of ESPN.com did a great job of putting the Rockies incredible month into words:

Don't ask how a team on life support can suddenly start winning and winning and winning some more -- until it looks up a month later, amidst the dripping Domaine Ste. Michelle, to find it has just won 21 of its last 22 games.

Don't ask how a team that was a mere four games over .500 on Sept. 15 could make it here from where this team came from.

From nine games under .500 (18-27) in May.

From six games out in the wild-card race in September.

From 4½ games back in that wild-card race with only nine games to play.

From two games behind with two games to play, and having to watch that Padres team they were trying to catch get within one strike of clinching.

From two runs behind in the 13th inning of the 163rd game of the year, a game they never should have had a chance to play in the first place.

Has any team ever overcome all of that to play in a World Series? Not a chance.

Clearly, they had to believe, or they couldn't have done this, right?

Couldn't have become the fifth team in the last 70 years to go 21-1 in any stretch of any season.

Couldn't have become the first team to do that in the middle of one of these mad charges to, and through, October.

Couldn't have become the second team in history (along with the 1976 Big Red Machine) to sweep its first two postseason series in any given October.

Couldn't have become the fifth team of all time to make it from last place one year to the World Series the next.

Couldn't have become the sixth team in history to fall nine games under .500 and still climb out of that canyon to make it to the World Series.

And, finally, couldn't have become the first team ever to find itself two games out of a playoff spot with two games to play and somehow survive to scramble into the World Series.

That didn't really happen. Did it? That wasn't really possible. Was it?

But then again, how could anyone have thought of it? That was a whole month ago, before all the madness began.

Before Todd Helton's dramatic walk-off bomb off Takashi Saito. Before Josh Fogg turned into The Dragon Slayer. Before Matt Holliday's slide. Before Kaz Matsui's slam. Before Yorvit Torrealba turned into David Ortiz.

For a while there, it almost looked as if this night might be different from all the other nights. On this night, the Rockies actually (gulp) trailed for an entire inning.

But for a whole nutty month now, somebody has always stepped forward, to grab onto the moment and turn it into another one of those here-they-go-again evenings. And sure enough, on this night, it was Seth Smith's turn.

Until now, he was probably better-known to some folks as Eli Manning's backup quarterback at Mississippi. He didn't even join this team until Sept. 16, when the Rockies brought him in from Colorado Springs. And he never started a single game -- not one. But would they be here without him? Heck, no. Wouldn't. Couldn't.

Minutes later, there was even less to worry about. That was because Matt Holliday crunched a 452-foot three-run homer that flipped the scoreboard to 6-1, set off an eruption of fountains and fireworks, and launched a party that may not end for a week.

Suntan Superman · 10-16-2007, 04:57 PM

Truthfully with Holliday I can point to one thing. Last year, the dude super lagged on a play, and a run didn't score because he literally walked home and the runner was thrown out at 2nd so his run didn't count. Anyway, I remember good ole' Clint Hurdle tearing into him on the bench. I loved the guy, I figured Clint's speech would do one of two things, either he'd get on himself and that he'd never be good, or that he'd heed Clint's advice and buckle down. Which one did he do?

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Rockies in the series!

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