Another Rocktober? Colorado Not Smart Enough to Doubt It

SAN DIEGO -- My theory about the Colorado Rockies is, they're too dumb to know better.

When their playoff hopes seemingly are dead, the Mile High Gang dons stubborn ignorance like it's a fleece coat.

If the house showed 20, these dopes would double down.

They're more Rocky Balboa than Rockies, long shots walking into a meat locker with clenched fists.

Three Septembers ago, when many big leaguers would've booked golf outings, the Rockies clung to the mathematically stupid idea that they could still reach the playoffs. Then they mounted the greatest closing run in baseball history. Not until the World Series did their delusion fade.

The 2009 season brought a different version of the same irrational plot, the Rockies impossibly behind early in the season, then butting into the playoffs, goofy grins on faces.

West Coast Bias is on to these dummies, but that's only because I was barely smart enough to get into San Diego State.

The smart crowd, meantime, wrote the Rockies off two weeks ago.

The math was chilling, of course, the Dummies 11 games behind the San Diego Padres with 39 games to go, and also trailing the San Francisco Giants. The Rockies being the Rockies, they closed to 5 1/2 games, yet even on Sunday morning, the Denver Post wrote that they were "not good enough to play in October."

Finding the team's senior player after the team beat the Padres again on Sunday, I said the Rockies are too dumb to realize their season ended two weeks ago.

"I would agree with you," Todd Helton said. "That's not a bad thing."

He smiled and added: "People say baseball is a thinking man's game. A lot of times, I would disagree with that."

Helton was packing for Denver, leaving it to clubbies to stow the brooms that had swept the Padres to pull the Rockies to 4 1/2 games out.

Any dramatic story needs elements that seem implausible but not incomprehensible, and the Padres have done their part by losing 10 consecutive games for the first time since 1994. They went into Aug. 26 with a 76-49 record, then were denied a series sweep by the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks. Since, they've been swept in consecutive series by the Philadelphia Phillies, the Diamondbacks and the Rockies.

The Rockies, like many tourists, preferred to stay in San Diego, where they had won all three series this season and are 8-2 after the 4-2 victory on Sunday.

Elsewhere on the road, the Rockies are 22-40, so unless they win somewhere other than Denver or San Diego, their chances of a third Rocktober berth in four years appear dicey.

Yet, the Rockies are the only NL West team that's shown it can sprint to the wire. Maybe it's the thin air in Denver. Strengthens the lungs.

"We know how to finish," said Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, whose 14th home run initiated Sunday's victory. "I think that everybody else knows that. Every time we take the field, when a guy from another team sees me, he says, 'Geez, are you guys going to do your thing?'

"It's like, we just kind of do it. We don't know what we're doing."

"I ... told (the players) that if anybody feels the Colorado Rockies are out of it, then I don't think they should be in the clubhouse."
-- Rockies manager Jim Tracy Maybe the Rockies should write one of those yellow books, "Baseball Comebacks for Dummies."

Ignorance starts from the top, so I asked Rockies leader Jim Tracy, the manager, if he was too dumb to believe two weeks ago that the Rockies were out of playoff contention. He said he was, in so many words. What's more, he shared his belief with the players, telling them that "the dotted line on the contract" requires them to play their best for all 162 games.

"I also told them that if anybody feels the Colorado Rockies are out of it, then I don't think they should be in the clubhouse," Tracy said.

These being the Rockies, not one of them walked out the door.

"These kids are tremendous competitors," Tracy said. "And they have a great understanding of the message you send them."

Instead of being a wise guy and asking Tracy what message the Rockies were sent during the All-Star break -- they went 2-11 after the four-day holiday -- I went over to the Titanic to check on the passengers.

"We're going to be fine," said Padres utilityman Jerry Hairston Jr., who already has won the team's MVP award, as the Padres are 0-10 since he went onto the disabled list.

I didn't mention the Titanic to Hairston, but he nonetheless came up with an oceanic metaphor.

"Give the Rockies credit," he said. "They are playing well. One of the things about this sport is, when athletes smell blood in the water, they attack."

If the Rockies are sharks and the Padres are shark food, it wouldn't be the first time. Colorado's historic comeback in 2007 dropped the Padres into third place, out of the playoff picture. But the Padres have bigger concerns now than the Rockies. They are sputtering in every way -- starting pitching, bullpen, defense, hitting, baserunning. Breathing.

Their longest losing streak this season had been only three games.

"It's been a little bit of everything," said Hairston, whose sore elbow will be examined again this week. "We just need to take a step back and regroup."

The Rockies still have their own challenges, among them catching the second-place Giants. If it's going to happen for the Rockies, they'll probably need more heavy lifting from the best middle-of-the-order duo in the NL West, No. 3 hitter Carlos Gonzalez and the cleanup man, Tulowitzki.

An able outfielder at all three spots and a good baserunner as well, Gonzalez could become the first NL player since Billy Williams in 1972 to win a home Triple Crown. He leads all NL hitters at home with a .386 batting average, 23 home runs and 60 RBI. True to his team's personality, Gonzalez is more apt to succeed in San Diego than in other road venues. Twice this year he has homered in Petco Park, where many left-handed hitters are reduced to near irrelevance. Three more hits Sunday lifted his San Diego batting average to .316 this season.

Tulowitzki's return on July 27 from a wrist fracture has only helped Gonzalez, who in the 34 games that followed batted .412 with 14 doubles, 14 home runs and an on-base plus slugging percentage (.OBP) of 1.360.

Gonzalez wasn't with the Rockies in 2007. But after Saturday's win, to which he contributed a crucial double off stellar reliever Luke Gregerson, he talked of adding to the franchise's favorite legacy.

"We're really good at this time of the year," said Gonzalez, who was traded by the Oakland A's to Colorado in November 2008. "It's just very important to play good baseball right now. You have to be able to finish strong to make sure you get your spot.

"We finished like two games behind the (Padres) in the first half, and we had a really bad second half to start. You can see, they're not playing really good baseball. They're going to have to play better if they want to make it."