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Rockies walk off in classic Coors fashion

Is that really three wins in a row?  Can anyone confirm that?  Seems hard to believe considering how determined the Rockies seem to fritter away any and every opportunity that the NL Worst division is trying to present them.  Sure, the division-leading Diamondbacks pulled off a miraculous six-run comeback tonight, but that only leaves them with a paltry .500 record.  It’s a crying shame that the one year that the Rockies have finally had high expectations placed on them, they manage to be the biggest disappointment in all of baseball even with a horrendous division attempting to bail them out.

In the past, an extra inning game at Coors Field almost always meant one thing: a Rockies win.  It’s hard to describe the confidence that a fan would feel when the Rox headed to extra frames, knowing that the good guys always had the last at-bat in the Denver hitting paradise.  Lately though, it seems that the home dominance and confidence has gone by the wayside, evidenced by the fact that the team is now only 2-3 in extras at home this year.  Compare that to the 12-5 mark compiled over the past three seasons and you begin to see that despite the small sample size this is beginning to look like a disturbing trend.

Even tonight after leadoff walks in both the 9th, 10th, and 11th innings, it seemed like I was just waiting for someone to screw it up or fail to come through.  Not all that surprisingly, the baserunners were squandered in the 9th and 10th innings.  However, Kevin Gregg’s wildness (two walks and an errant throw to first on an attempted sac bunt) bailed the Rockies out in the 11th after which Ryan Spilborghs delivered the game winner.

As the trading deadline gets closer and closer, you’re going to see a lot of Colorado players mentioned in trade rumors (just see Tom’s recent articles on who’s staying and who’s going).  It kills me to see this team back in the selling mode just one year after winning the National League pennant and following it up with an offseason that had all signs pointing toward a great run of competitive seasons.  I refuse to believe that the way the Rox have been playing for the first three months is the true skill level of this team.  Who knows, perhaps this little three game win streak will lead to a bigger turnaround.  In all likelihood, it probably won’t.  But if it’s going to, the Rockies are going to need to recapture the old Coors Field magic (read: domination) and re-establish a scary identity at home.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.