Facts of Rockies’ run read like fiction

DENVER -- Reliever LaTroy Hawkins doesn’t want to think about it “until I’m fishing, first week of November.�

Outfielder Matt Holliday has been thinking about it too much, which is why his stomach has been in knots for a month.

And backup outfielder Ryan Spilborghs said the whole idea is so farfetched it reads like a fairy tale. But it’s true: The Colorado Rockies are going to the World Series.

Only that’s not the part that stretches the imagination. It’s how the Rockies got there that’s truly unbelievable.

Three times in the final week of the regular season they were a loss away from elimination. Twice they were a batter away. And once they were only a strike away.

Yet somehow they found a way to persevere, winning 13 of their final 14 games in September, rallying to beat Trevor Hoffman, the game’s most successful closer, in a one-game tiebreaker to reach the postseason, then sweeping Philadelphia and Arizona once they got there, becoming the first team in 31 years to win its first seven playoff games.

“Every out’s been important. Every pitch has been important,� Holliday said, his head dripping with champagne as he stood in the middle of a raucous Rockies clubhouse early Tuesday morning.

“It’s hard to believe. It didn’t seem that possible. But we stayed with it, kept fighting. It’s hard on your stomach from time to time. But it’s a lot of fun.�

Add it up and the Rockies have won 21 of their last 22 games, making them the first National League club to put a streak like that together in more than seven decades.

Yet none of it came easy, not even in the playoffs. Of the 18 runs Colorado scored in the NL Championship Series, 17 came with two out. And if you go back a game-and-half into the division series, 24 of the Rockies’ last 28 runs scored with two down.

Their long-maligned pitching staff has been amazing, though, giving up just more than two earned runs a game in the postseason, continuing a run that saw them post the league’s best ERA since the All-Star break.

Yet through it all the Rockies say they never looked up, never looked at the streak. With their backs to the wall virtually every day since the streak started Sept. 16, they couldn’t afford to.

“It happened so fast,� said left-hander Jeff Francis, who tied a franchise record with 17 regular-season wins before winning twice more in the postseason. “Right before it started we knew we had to do something special to get in the playoffs. It’s been our philosophy all year [to] just take one game at a time.

“And we happened to do it. Night after night someone else was coming through.�

Left-hander Mark Redman, who didn’t even have a job a week before the streak started, won two games down the stretch. Brad Hawpe hit game-winning homers twice in three days. Reliever Ramon Ortiz, who had one perfect outing all season, delivered it in the 13th inning of the tiebreaker with San Diego, earning him his only win as a member of the Rockies.

Reliever Matt Herges, in the minors in July, gave up only two hits in 17 scoreless innings through his win in Game 4 of the NLCS. And center fielder Willy Taveras, who played only 10 regular-season games after Aug. 10 and sat out the division series, scored the winning run in the NLCS opener and drove in the winning run in Game 2.

“I don’t think there’s anybody in there who hasn’t contributed,� Manager Clint Hurdle said.

“This may never happen again. You look at your history books, how many times has it happened so far?�

Well, considering seven of Colorado’s wins have come in the postseason, the answer is never. But that’s not the end of the history because the Rockies are only the fifth team to finish last one season and reach the World Series the next. They’re the sixth team to fall nine games below .500 and rebound to win a pennant in the same season. And they’re the only team to have been two games out of a playoff berth with two games to play, only to finish the season with a league title.

If there was one key moment in the streak, Holliday said it came three games in, when the Rockies’ focus was simply on getting out of fourth place in the division. Trailing by a run and down to their last strike against the Dodgers and All-Star closer Takashi Saito on Sept. 18, the Rockies got a two-run, walk-off homer from Todd Helton.

“If you want to say there was a signature moment, that might be it,� Holliday said. “Obviously there had to be a lot of great moments and a lot of big contributions. There has to be countless number of big situations and big plays.

“But that really stands out to me. That was a huge win for us.�

And now the Rockies face one final test in the World Series, against an opponent still to be determined. Whomever it is, that opponent might not be the biggest challenge Colorado faces. Because they made such quick work of their NL playoff foes, the Rockies must wait eight days before playing again, the longest break before a World Series opener in history.

Considering the franchise waited 15 years to get to the World Series, having to wait another eight days to play there probably doesn’t seem all that bad. After all, they still have some acclimating to do.

“That just don’t even sound right,� Hawkins said when asked how it feels to have “Colorado Rockies� and “National League champions� in a sentence. “It hasn’t had a chance to sink in. But we’re not done yet.�

[email protected]

--

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Streaking all the way to the World Series

On Sept. 16, Colorado was 77-72 and 6 1/2 games out of first in the National League West. A month later, the Rockies are in the World Series thanks to a 13-1 record in final two weeks of the regular season and an 8-0 record in October:

Sept. 16: Rockies 13, Marlins 0 (77-72)

* Todd Helton hits his 300th home run as the Rockies end a three-game skid.

Sept. 18: Rockies 3, Dodgers 1 (78-72)

Sept. 18: Rockies 9, Dodgers 8 (79-72)

* Helton’s two-out, two-run walk-off homer against Takashi Saito gives the Rockies a double-header sweep. Several players call this the biggest win of the streak.

Sept. 19: Rockies 6, Dodgers 5 (80-72)

* Brad Hawpe’s two-run, eighth-inning homer off Jonathan Broxton caps another comeback.

Sept. 20: Rockies 9, Dodgers 4 (81-72)

* Matt Holliday’s fourth homer in three games sparks a six-run second inning.

Sept. 21: Rockies 2, Padres 1 (82-72)

* Hawpe’s 14th-inning homer assures Colorado its first winning season since 2000.

Sept. 22: Rockies 6, Padres 2 (83-72)

* Hawpe goes four for four and four relievers combine for 4 1/3 shutout innings.

Sept. 23: Rockies 7, Padres 3 (84-72)

* Jeff Francis ties a team record with his 17th victory, pitching the Rockies to a franchise-record 84th win.

Sept. 25: Rockies 9, Dodgers 7 (85-72)

* Troy Tulowitzki puts the Rockies ahead to stay with a sixth-inning home run. They remain one game behind San Diego in the NL wild-card race, and the victory knocks the Dodgers out of playoff contention.

Sept. 26: Rockies 2, Dodgers 0 (86-72)

* Josh Fogg and three relievers combine on a shutout, extending Colorado’s win streak to a club-record 10.

Sept. 27: Rockies 10, Dodgers 4 (87-72)

* Colorado pounds out 15 hits -- including three homers -- to complete its third consecutive series sweep.

Sept. 28: Diamondbacks 4, Rockies 2 (87-73)

* Brandon Webb finally solves the Rockies as he outduels Francis to clinch a playoff berth for Arizona. It will be the Rockies’ only loss in their amazing 22-game stretch.

Sept. 29: Rockies 11, Diamondbacks 1 (88-73)

* For the sixth time in 13 games, the Rockies score nine or more runs.

Sept. 30: Rockies 4, Diamondbacks 3 (89-73)

* Hawpe’s two-run double caps three-run, eighth-inning rally; win forces one-game playoff for NL wild card.

Oct. 1: Rockies 9, Padres 8 (90-73)

* Rockies score three times in the 13th against Trevor Hoffman as Holliday drives in the tying run, then scores the winner.

Oct. 3: Rockies 4, Phillies 2 (1-0)

* Francis makes a three-run second stand up for the franchise’s second-ever postseason win.

Oct. 4: Rockies 10, Phillies 5 (2-0)

* Kaz Matsui hits a grand slam and drives

in five runs.

Oct. 6: Rockies 2, Phillies 1 (3-0)

* Jeff Baker’s pinch-hit single makes a winner of rookie Ubaldo Jimenez and sends Rockies to league championship series.

Oct. 11: Rockies 5, Diamondbacks 1 (1-0)

* Francis holds Arizona to a run in 6 2/3 innings.

Oct. 12: Rockies 3, Diamondbacks 2 (2-0)

* After blowing a ninth-inning lead, the Rockies win two innings later on a bases-loaded walk.

Oct. 14: Rockies 4, Diamondbacks 1 (3-0)

* Yorvit Torrealba’s three-run homer leaves Colorado a win away from the World Series.

Oct. 15: Rockies 6, Diamondbacks 4 (4-0)

* Colorado wins its first-ever league title behind a six-run, fourth-inning rally with two out.

Los Angeles Times