Mirror Images

Both the Rockies and the Giants had to fight down to the wire Tuesday night, and it came out well in both cases for the Rockies. The Rockies gave up 4 runs in the 9th and was facing the tying run on 3rd and won 11-10, while the Giants came back from a 10-4 deficit scoring a run in the 8th and 3 in the 9th before going down 10-8.

These results reduced the Rockies Magic number for the postseason, but now the Giants and Braves are tied, so it requires both the giants and Braves to lose to pick up one in the loss side of the Magic number. The good news is if either one of those teams were to somehow go 11-0, the Rockies can win it on their own simply by going 7-4. Going into the game they needed to go 9-3. Even if they were to go 6-5 while oneoof those teams won out, the Rockies would have one more chance in the Tiebreaker game.

I'll still hold to my prediction that 90 wins will get to the postseason. The Rockies need 4 wins to get to 90, the Giants, Braves and Marlins all need 9. 90-72 would give the Rockies their best season ever.

It seems like every starting pitcher has had a uncharacteristic meltdown in the past week, Jimenez blew up against the Giants last Tuesday, while De La Rosa had his worst outing in 4 months Tuesday night. We've kind of gotten spoiled here, watching these guys pitch this year, a consistency we haven't seen much of here in the high altitude. Could be the pressure of the race, but I think it's more of just not having it once in a while.

Give credit to the hitting, they came through Tuesday night with 5 or more runs for the 4th game in a row and hit double digits for the 2nd time in 3 games. Every starting hitter had a hit.

Probably the most significant event for the Rockies was the return of Huston Street, who dispatched the two hitters he faced and will now move back to the closer's role. This should solidify the bullpen even more returning Franklin Morales to one of the setup roles probably in the 7th.

If you watched the last couple of pregame shows on TV, Tracy Ringolsby keeps mentioning the fact that the Giants are 0-6 in San Diego this season. That stat is meaningless for the following reasons: 1) The Giants last played in San Diego on May 21st and left with a record of 19-21, 2) The series against San Diego is the last weekend of the season, and the Rockies are playing in Los Angeles, where the Rockies are 2-7 (including the Angels) this season, 3) The Braves or Marlins may be in 2nd place in the Wild Card race before then, 4) The Rockies will probably clinch before then, and 5) Past performance doesn't guarantee future results.

The Rockies will end up with a winning record against San Diego this year currently at 10-6. With the win last night, the Rockies now have a winning record on every day of the week and are guaranteed to not have a losing record on any day except Saturday. They need a win in one of their two remaining Saturday games to clinch that. Rockies have clinched a winning record in September, Currently at 14-6 with 7 more games to play.