Back in Control

The unthinkable has happened. The Rockies with the help of the Pirates and Padres (and even the Nationals) have been put back in control of their destiny. One win would put them in the playoffs, four wins would put them in as no less than the 2nd seed as the NL West Champion.

Last Saturday, the Dodgers came within one game of clinching the NL West requiring either a Dodger win or a Rockies loss. Since Saturday, the Rockies are 3-0 and the Dodgers are 0-4. With the Dodgers off on Thursday, and the Rockies 2.5 games behind, the situation is simple, but not easy: If the Rockies can win 4 more in a row, they get the West, otherwise with one win or a Braves loss, the Rockies will gain the Wild Card.

Jason Hammel became the 5th starting pitcher to gain 10 wins, which is the first time in Rockies History five pitchers have 10 wins in the same season.

Rockies and Brewers each hit 3 home runs Wednesday night. The Brewers Homers all came as solo home runs as leadoff hitters of the inning 2nd (Fielder) 4th (Cameron) and 9th (McGehee). The Rockies Homers were all two-run shots in the 3rd (Helton), 6th (Gonzalez), and 7th (Tulowitzki). Two Rockies runs were also scored on Wild Pitches.

The Rockies reached 90 wins for the 2nd time in team history, tieing 2007. If the Rockies don't require a tiebreaker game with the Braves, they are guaranteed to have their best winning percentage in history.

The Rockies are 22 games above .500 for the second time in history, the first coming on September 11. The Rockies have scored 7 runs or more in two straight games, the first since August 12th and 13th against the Pirates.

Despite the Braves recent run, the Rockies finished September with a better record during the month than the Braves did, edging them 18-9 vs. 18-10.

Perfect Night

Everything went right for the Rockies--except for a Blown Save by Huston Street, his first since June 2. The Marlins ended the Braves 7 game winning streak, the Padres held off the Dodgers from clinching the NL West and the Rockies came back from a 9th inning 3 run homer to tie them, as Chris Iannetta hit a 2-run pinch hit home run in the bottom of the 11th.

Meanwhile the Rockies' win eliminated the Cubs and Marlins, and put the Giants on the verge of elimination.

The Rockies now have to lose 4 games for the Braves to win out and take the Wild Card. The Phillies clinched a tie for the East with the Braves, so their best shot remains the Wild Card.

However should the Rockies win their remaining games, all they need to win the West would be one win by the Padres tomorrow.

How Many Ways to Make the Postseason?

With 6 days and 6 games left, there remain 3 ways the Rockies can possibly get into the Postseason. The easiest way is to win 5 of the six games and beat out the Braves for the Wild Card. However, if the banged-up Dodgers can find a way to lose the next two in San Diego, the Rockies can still win the West by winning all six games this week. The 3rd way the Rockies can get into the playoffs is also via the Wild Card route, but beating out the Phillies. The Rockies are in the same postion (2 games out) with the Phillies as the Braves are with the Rockies, so it's probably the least likely scenario. In order for the Braves to win the East, they would have to win all 6 games and the Phillies would have to lose at least 5 of 6. The best the Phillies could be and not win the East would be 91-61, which means the Rockies would only need to win 4 of their 6 to get to 92 and beat them out. Winning 4 of 6 would put the Rockies at a minimum of a tiebreaker game on Monday in Atlanta, and only one loss by the Braves would put them in, so it really doesn't matter.

The Rockies best play is to sweep the Brewers, which would keep pressure on the Braves. Depending on what LA does against the Padres, the final series in LA this weekend could become another playoff situation for the Rockies.

However, the most likely scenario is the Wild Card berth over the Braves.

Cubs, and Marlins, now need a miracle and the Giants are two losses away from being eliminated. The Marlins could really help the Rockies by taking one of the next two against the Braves.

The Rockies unlike the fans, just have to go out and not watch the scoreboard. And just like in 2007, keep on winning.

Voice of the Rockies Jeff Kingery to Retire

Rockies Radio Broadcaster Jeff Kingery who has been with the team since the beginning in 1993 has announced he will retire from the Broadcasting booth at the end of this season. Jeff, along with Wayne Hagin, who left the Rockies to go to the St. Louis Cardinals in 2003, were the two original Rockies Radio Broadcasters.

This makes TV Broadcaster George Frazier the "Dean" of Rockies Broadcasters. Frazier has been with the team since 1998.

Thanks for the memories, Jeff and good luck in your retirement.

Everything Gets Magnified this Time of Year

In 2007, when the Rockies were on their season-ending streak that propelled them to the playoffs and the World Series, my rallying cry was "Every Game Counts!" A lot of attention gets paid to games late in the season, because they are the games that cause you to clinch or fall out of the race. But without the games in April, May, June, July and August, many teams aren't even in a position to play important games in September.

Yesterday's game-saving catch by Clint Barmes WAS important, as was Yorvit Torrealba's Sac Fly in Friday night's game.

But you also have consider all those losses back in April and May that maybe could have turned into wins and maybe the Rockies could be looking at the NL West Division title rather than the Wild Card berth. And no matter how this season ultimately turns out the Rockies have to be better out of the box in the early months. The past 3 years they have gotten to the mark of 18-27, and in two of those years they dug out of it. In 2010, it would be nice to finish the first 45 games at 23-22 or better.

But since it's come down to the Braves and Rockies for the Wild Card race, you have to look back to two games that may make the difference: July 9th and July 12th.

The Rockies and Braves split 4 non-competitive games in Atlanta in May, and the Braves headed into Coors Field for a big 4 game series. On Thursday, the Braves took a 2-0 lead, 4-2 lead and 5-4 lead, each time the Rockies came back to tie without taking the lead. In the bottom of the eighth, pinch-hitter Garrett Atkins delivered a two-out two-run double and the Rockies held on in the top of the 9th, to win 7-6.

Then on Sunday, after the Braves won the next two games, and the 3 day All-Star break looming, the Braves jumped out to a 4-0 lead against Jason Hammel who only lasted 3 innings. In the bottom of the 7th the Rockies were trailing by 4 runs for the 3rd time in the game 7-3. Seth Smith hit a 3 run homer in the 7th, and Ryan Spilborghs delivered a game tying double in the 8th, but Chris Iannetta is thrown out at the plate.

In the 9th, Seth Smith is on first with 2 outs, when Brad Hawpe delivers a double to right-center as Smith scores the winner.

Take those two games the other way, and everything else goes the same way, the Rockies are now 86-70 and the Braves are 87-69.

Every Game Does Count!

DIVISION SEED TIEBREAKERS: If the Phillies and Cardinals end up tied for the 1st or 2nd division seeding, the Phillies would have the advantage based on their 4-1 record against the Cardinals this season. The Dodgers have the Edge on the Phillies 4-3 in the case of a tie, and the Cardinals have a 5-2 edge over the Dodgers. I'm not clear on whether a 3 way tie takes the total record, but in that case the Records would be: Dodgers 8-6, Phillies 7-5, and Cardinals 6-6.

Weekly Race In Review September 21-27

In the next to the last week of the season, the Rockies recovered from losing 2 out of 3 to the Padres to scratch out two wins over the Central Winning St. Louis Cardinals to finish the week 3-3. All 3 wins were 1 run wins. They are now 16-9 in September with 2 more games to go. Meanwhile the Atlanta Braves moved into 2nd place in the Wild Card race by sweeping the Mets and Nationals on the Road for a 6-0 week.

Results:
9/22 ROCKIES 11 Padres 10
9/23 Padres 6 Rockies 3
9/14 Padres 5 ROCKIES 4
9/25 ROCKIES 2 Cardinals 1
9/26 Cardinals 6 ROCKIES 3
9/27 ROCKIES 4 Cardinals 3

The Dodgers also went 3-3 and have all but locked up the West Division. Meanwhile the Marlins were also 3-3, Giants 3-4, and the Cubs went 5-2, but still can do no better than a tie for the Wild Card. The other division Leaders Phillies went 3-4, while the Cardinals finished 3-3.

Magic Number for the Dodgers to win the West 2, Rockies need 16. Magic Number for the Rockies to win the Wild Card is 5, while the Braves need 10.

Rockies finish their home schedule with Milwaukee, followed by a weekend Series and season finale in Los Angeles. Braves are home for 7 games, Marlins for 3 followed by the Nationals for 4.

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DOWN THE STRETCH: Remaining Games:
Rockies (3H, 3A)--Milw (3), @LAD (3)

Dodgers--(3H, 3A)--Pitt (1), @SD (2), Col (3)

Giants--(3H, 3A)--Ariz (3), @SD (3)

Marlins--(6A)--@Atl (3), @Phil 3)

Braves--(7H)--Fla (3), Wash (4)

The 90 Plus factors show the Dodgers at 96, Braves at 92 and Rockies 91

GIVE BARMES A SAVE: There have been moments over the last couple of weeks where the Rockies defense has let them down, but when they make the plays, there is nothing more fun to watch. Ian Stewart made an incredible play on Friday against Matt Holliday. In Sunday's game, Clint Barmes made one of the most incredible catches I've ever seen to end the game against the Cardinals. Obviously, Albert Pujols made a mistake by continuing to run full out before it dropped in, but even if he only goes halfway, the Rockies would have gotten Julio Lugo out at 3rd, as he continued to home plate after the catch and didn't realize that Barmes had made the catch until he got back to the Cardinals dugout. Sunday's win may or may not be the game that wins the Wild Card, but it has to give the team a huge lift heading into the final week.

UP AND DOWN MONTH: The Braves are on a tear, but overall in September they have only gained one game on the Rockies. They started the month 3.5 games behind the Rockies and are now 2.5 games behind. The Braves started out the month losing 6 of 8 while the Rockies were winning 10 of their first 11, which moved the Braves 8.5 games back. Since September 9 the Rockies have gone 8-8 while the Braves have won 14 of 16. The Braves still need the Rockies to lose at least 3 games (if the Braves win their last 7) to win the Wild Card berth. If the Rockies go 4-2 this week, the worst that can happen is there would be a Tiebreaker on Monday, October 5th in Atlanta.

DOMINANCE OVER CENTRAL: The Rockies finished the regular season series with the Cardinals at 6-1, increasing their Record against Central Teams to 28-11. The only Central team that will have a winning record against the Rockies this year is Houston, at 5-2 vs. the Rockies. The Pirates are the only other team to win as many as 3 against the Rockies (pending the Milwaukee series this week), but they had 9 chances to do it.

(ALMOST) ALWAYS ON SUNDAY: The Rockies finished the season with an 11-3 record on Sunday's at home. Their last Home loss on a Sunday, was on July 5th vs. Arizona 4-3. Their other home losses were April 12 7-5 vs. the Phillies and Jim Tracy's first loss on May 31 vs. San Diego 5-2.
Overall, the Rockies are 17-9 on Sundays with one left in LA next Sunday.

Hot Braves

The Atlanta Braves seem to be this year's version of the 2007 Rockies. Over the past two weeks, they have are 12-2 including a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals. They also play the Washington Nationals in 6 of their final 9 games with the other 3 against Florida. The Braves have an 8-4 record against the Nationals with all 4 losses coming in Washington. Against the Marlins they are 7-8, 2-4 in Atlanta. If the Braves were to win out the rest of their games, (finishing 21-2 down the stretch), the Rockies would only have to finish 5-3 to force a tiebreaker with the Braves, and 6-2 to win the Wild Card outright. Every loss reduces the Rockies needed record one. So let's assume the Braves stumble a couple of times and lose two of their remaining 9 games. This would require the Rockies to go only 4-4 to win the Wild card outright.

As Jim Tracy says, it's much better at this point to be the hunted rather than the hunted. Every time you win, it takes a little bit of air out of the hunter.

SIX--Holliday Style!!!!

In a scene reminiscent of Matt Holliday's tiebreaking score in 2007, Yorvit Torrealba hit a sac fly to score Troy Tulowitzki with the winning run in front of a full house preventing the St. Louis Cardinals from clinching the NL Central title on Coors Field tonight as the Rockies finally got their magic number down to 6. They maintained their 3.5 game lead on the 2nd Place Atlanta Braves and moved a game closer to the Dodgers putting them now at 5 games back.

As Matt Holliday looked on from left field in his first visit to Coors Field in an opponent's uniform, Tulowitzki scored on a high throw from right fielder Ryan Ludwick. With a sellout crowd of nearly 50,000 the stadium became the first pure playoff atmosphere for the Rockies since the Giants series back in August.

Aaron Cook had a masterful 5 innings in his first game back on the mound since August 21st scattering 4 hits and no walks in a pitcher's duel with Chris Carpenter. For the second night in a row the Rockies scored in the first inning, and then didn't score again until late. Tonight, the 2nd run was enough to edge the Cardinals. Ian Stewart had an incredible run-saving play on Matt Holliday's scorcer in the 3rd inning.

It was the Rockies 7th straight win against the Cardinals dating back to May 7th 2008. The Rockies continued their dominance over the NL Central this season winning their 27th game against 10 losses, and have won 7 in a row against the Central and 24-2 after starting out 3-8. The next 5 games are against Central teams.

Note: The Giants were eliminated from the NL West race on Thursday night.

Now It's Officially for the Wild Card

With the Rockies loss and the Dodgers win Thursday night, the Dodgers have all but wrapped up the NL West. Although their Magic Number is officially 4, if the Rockies were to catch them with 93 or 94 wins, neither the Giants or the Braves would be able to tie them and force a tiebreaker for the NL West, so the real magic number for the Dodgers is 3.

So that leaves the Rockies with still a pretty good chance to capture the Wild Card berth, and the Magic Number remains at 7 over the Braves, despite the Giants loss on Thursday night (Thank you ex-Rockie Jeff Baker!)

The Cardinals come in Friday night needing one win to clinch the AL Central, but trail the Phillies for the 2nd Seed by 1/2 game and the Dodgers by 3 for the 1st Seed.

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.

Off Day Offerings

Snake-Bite Remedy: The Rockies completed only their 2nd winning record in Phoenix, by going 5-4 this season, same as in 2007. The 5 wins are tied for the most wins in 2007 as well as in 2004 when they went 5-5. In 2008 the Rockies went 1-8 in Arizona. The 11-7 season Record with the D-Backs is the best record since going 13-6 in 2004.

NO PICKUP ON OFF DAY: The Giants and Braves both won yesterday keeping the Rockies Magic Number at 9.

ANALYZING THE WILD CARD RACE: If any team is going to make a serious run at the Rockies Wild Card hopes I believe it will be the Atlanta Braves. Currently sitting at 80-70 five games back, They spend the entire last week at home after playing the Mets and Washington on the Road this week. Their pitching staff, unlike the Giants is still intact and a little bit of hitting could carry them to a big finish. They would need the Rockies to go less than .500 though unless they can win them all. I would still predict that the Braves will be the team to get past the Giants and Marlins and finish in 2nd place for the Wild Card.

Weekly Race In Review September 14-20

The Rockies finished strong winning 3 of their last 4 to give them a 3-3 recorda nd a 4-5 Road Trip. Combined with their previous 9-1 homestand, the Rockies are 13-6 in September. The Giants also went 3-3 while the Dodgers were 5-1 to take a 5 game lead in the West.


Results:
9/15 Giants 9 ROCKIES 1
9/16 Giants 10 ROCKIES 2
9/17 ROCKIES 4 Giants 3
9/18 Diamondbacks 7 ROCKIES 5
9/19 ROCKIES 10 Diamondbacks 4
9/20 ROCKIES 5 Diamondbacks 1

Meanwhile the Marlins were 4-3, Braves 4-2, and the Cubs 3-4. The other division Leaders Phillies went 5-1, while the Cardinals went 3-3.

Magic Number for the Dodgers to win the West 8, Rockies need 22. Magic Number for the Rockies to win the Wild Card is 9, Giants need 18, Marlins 18, Braves 19, and Cubs 23.

Rockies start their final 9 game homestand hosting San Diego and St. Louis The Giants follow the Rockies into Arizona, before heading home for 4 with the Cubs while the Dodgers head to the East Coast to take on Washington and Pittsburgh.

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DOWN THE STRETCH: Remaining Games:
Rockies (9H, 3A)--SD (3), STL (3), Milw (3), @LAD (3)

Dodgers--(3H, 9A)--@Wash (3) @Pitt (4), @SD (2), Col (3)

Giants--(7H, 6A)--@Ariz (3), Chic (4), Ariz (3), @SD (3)

Marlins--(6H, 6A)--Phil (3), NYM (3), @Atl (3), @Phil 3)

Braves--(7H, 6A)--@Mets (3), @Wash (3), Fla (3), Wash (4)

The Rockies are the only team in the hunt with 3 series left at home.

The 90 Plus factors show the Dodgers at 93, Rockies 94, Giants at 87, Marlins at 86, and Braves 86.

ROAD WARRIORS: Sunday's win gave the Rockies a franchise high 40 regular season wins on the road. They need to win one game in Los Angeles to have their first winning season on the road. Since June 4th the Rockies have a 29-20 Record on the Road, however they are 4-8 in their past 12 on the road.

POWER SURGE: In the weekend series against Arizona the Rockies scored 5 runs or more in 3 straight games. It was the first time the Rockies had scored 5 runs or more 3 straight times since August 12-14 against Pittsburgh.

UPDATE:
It's a Miracle, A True Purple Spectacle: One of my favorite Baseball writers Jayson Stark has a column featuring the Rockies Revival under Jim Tracy.

Just a sample:

So what happened next just doesn't happen. It can't happen. It never happens. Even the man who hired Jim Tracy -- Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd -- had no grandiose illusions that it was about to happen to his team.

"We studied this historically before we did it," O'Dowd said. "And usually, these moves don't do anything."

Well, this one did.

Before this move, there had never been a manager -- not one -- in the history of baseball that took over a team that had plummeted to 10 games under .500 and then got that same team to a point where it was 20 games over .500.

But not anymore. Check those standings. You'll find Tracy's Rockies at exactly 20 games above sea level (85-65) right now as they head into the final two weeks of a special season. And that's a miracle. An official baseball miracle.

October 1st--A Significant date in Rockies History

In 1995, the Rockies clinched the Wild Card Berth (I hate to use the term "Won the Wild Card") on the final day of the Season, October 1st. In 2007 the Rockies clinched the Wild Card Berth on the day after the last day of the season, which was October 1st when the tiebreaker game was held. (On the east coast it was already, October 2nd, but here in Colorado it was still October 1st.)

This year October 1st is on a Thursday 3 days and games before the end of the season. It's very possible for the Rockies to clinch again on that date if all goes well.

The magic number vs. the Giants is 13, and the Rockies will play 12 games between now and that date while the Giants will play 13. If the Rockies gain one in each of the games the Giants play (either by a Rockies win or a Giants loss), they will clinch on that date.

The magic number vs. the Braves who are now in 3rd behind the Giants is 12. They also play 13 games by the end of October 1st including 3 this weekend against the Phillies and 3 at the end of September vs. the Marlins.

The magic number vs. the Marlins is now 11, and have 12 games before October 1st. They probably have the toughest schedule of the four teams as they play the Phillies 6 times, and Atlanta for 3 in their final 15 games.

Rockies have 6 games remaining against winning teams, St. Louis and the Dodgers. Giants have 3 games this weekend with the Dodgers, and 4 with the Cubs.

To see the magic number progress through the season for the Wild Card:
June 3--Actual vs. St. Louis 120 vs. San Francisco 118
June 30--vs. San Francisco 88
July 31--vs. San Francicso 60
August 31--vs. San Francisco 32
September 17--vs. San Francisco 13

Colorado still has the best record in September at 11-5. Florida is 10-6, Atlanta 9-6 and the Giants are 7-8. The Rockies finished 14-1.

Oh, and one last thing, the Rockies magic number heading into the last 15 games of the season was 20. The Padres was 14.

In 1995 the Rockies led the west by 2 games, and their magic number was 13 heading into the last 15 games. They finished 7-8.

TIEBREAKERS: I kept waiting for word on the coin flips for the potential tiebreaker games this season, when I found out Tuesday that they changed the way they determine the host for the Tiebreaker games. The Rockies will be visitors if they tie San Francisco, because the Giants won the season series. They would also be visitors with the Dodgers in the unlikely event that they tie, and the Marlins or Braves pass both of them for the wild card. Otherwise a tie results in the Dodgers winning the division and the Rockies getting the Wild Card.

The Marlins would also host the Rockies in a Tiebreaker with the Rockies. Since Atlanta and the Rockies tied the season series, it's unclear what the next tiebreaker is, however I believe the Rockies would hit the Road for that one also. The Rockies would get to host the Cubs if those two teams were tied for the wild card.

Nobody Said It was Going to Be Easy

Maybe last night's win, kept people from massively jumping off the bandwagon that has been the Rockies 2009, but that 9th inning was one that kept the antacid producers in business. Nothing like testing the nerves a little bit before finally putting the Giants away at AT&T Park for the first time since the 2nd game there this season on May 2nd.

It's a win that shows the difference between a 1.5 game lead and a 3.5 game lead. If they had one more win in San Francisco, they'd have a 5.5 game lead. But more importantly, it brought one more pitcher to the forefront in the form of Jorge De La Rosa who masterfully subdued the Giants for 8 innings in what he calls the biggest game of his career.

Now I'm not one who believes this was an all or nothing series as some in the media have put added importance on it. But regardless of the outcome the Rockies would have come out of the series at least one loss ahead of the Giants, and the Giants are hitting the road for 6 games including Los Angeles before the follow the Rockies into Arizona.

Every game is important. This weekend may be the last chance for the Rockies to have a chance to catch the Dodgers, and they need the Giants to win to do it. The Rockies need to bear down and win as many of the next 12 games as they can in order to make the last weekend meaningful for the NL West Crown. And since the Dodgers can win the west just by tieing the Rockies, that means the Rockies must win 3 more games than the Dodgers over the next two weeks to cut the lead to 2 or less.

But the consolation prize in challenging the Dodgers is that they could wrap up the Wild Card with any combination of 13 wins and Giants Losses out of 25 chances or 12 out of 25 Chances, should the Marlins move past the Giants.

We are down to the last 15 games of the Season, and 2 years ago we saw what could happen in a mere 15 games. Not a time to get complacent, but a time to focus even more and propel themselves into the playoffs.

ROCK-VEMBER?: The National League Playoffs will start on Wednesday, October 7 with the 5 game Divisional Playoffs. Both Divisional Series in the National League will be played on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and end Tuesday, October 13 if necessary. Games 1, 2 and 5 will be hosted by the higher ranked team, and Games 3 and 4 will be held in the other city. All games will be on TBS. The Rockies likely will play St. Louis or Philadelphia in this Series and would not play the Dodgers because they are in the same division and can't face each other.

The National League Championship Series also on TBS will start Thursday, October 15th at the Higher remaining seed (Wild Card is seeded 4th regardless of Record). The Series continues Friday, October 16th, before moving to the other city on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday, October 18, 19, and 21, before returning for Games 6 and 7 on Friday and Saturday, the 23rd and 24th.

The World Series will extend into November for sure as the Al Team hosts games 1 and 2 on October 28 and 29, and Move to the NL October 31-November 2, and then finishes up if Necessary back in the AL on November 4 and 5. All World Series Games as well as the AL Championship Series will be on FOX.

LAST 20: Tuesday marked the first time since June 9th that the Rockies didn't have a winning record in their last 20 games, as they fell to 10-10 in the last 20 games. Wednesday's win put them back up to 11-9, and now have gone 92 games without having a losing record in their last 20. The Rockies are now 74-4-14 in their last 10 over the past 98 games, since a 1-36-9 start.

Analyzing the 2010 Schedule

Looking at the tentative schedule for 2010 for the Rockies, a few of the big quirks of the past couple of years are gone. No wild coast to coast road trips. In fact, other than an 11 game road road trip right after the All-star break, and a 9 game trip in early May, the Rockies don't have any road trips longer than 7 games, and none of them to travel to two time zones. By comparison, they had 3 double digit road trips and 2 more that were 9 and a 3 city 8 gamer in 2009.

On the home side, there are two 10 game home stands. Everthing else is 6, 7, or 8 games except for a 3 game set with Milwaukee in August separating a six game road trip on the east coast from a 6 game west coast swing. In fact that 12 out of 15 road games is as bad as it gets next season. The discrepancy between home and away games never gets worse than 7 games next year. In 2009 between the 2nd road trip and the homestand last week, it never got better than 7 games after a road trip, and reached a peak of 14 more road games than home games in June--two separate times.

So from a home and away standpoint it's a rather consistent week home and week away with the noted exceptions above. Fairly sane from a travel standpoint.

In inter-league play the Rockies get their usual 15 games play a team from each American League Division. They travel to the Central's Kansas City in May, and Minnesota in June, as well as the West's LA Angels. They host the East's Boston and Toronto. The extra NL Series comes at home against Milwaukee, this year it was Pittsburgh.

Other than the 9 and 9 home games with all 4 of their West opponents, the Rockies play 3 and 3 against the East and Central teams except for the extra series with the Brewers and the other exceptions. 2 at Chicago and Houston, 4 each home and away with Washington, 4 at St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Florida, and Philadelphia and 4 at home against Cincinnati and Houston.

The one oddity that stands out is that nearly half (35 of 72) of the games against the NL West come between August 3 and September 29. This includes 12 games against the Dodgers, 9 against the Diamondbacks, 8 against the Giants and 6 against the Padres. Only 3 games against the West come in the first 3 weeks, followed by 12 straight starting April 26. Another set of 12 come from May 25-June 6. The remaining 10 games come just before the All-star break.

From a Rockies perspective, overall it looks like a pretty reasonable schedule compared to the past few years.