Wish I hadn't seen it coming, but I did. In a Friday blog, I wrote that there was a very real prospect of the Colorado Rockies getting swept by the San Francisco Giants following their two consecutive Coors Field losses against the Los Angeles Dodgers. And so it came to pass, with the Rockies falling in the first couple of contests because they didn't supplement strong pitching performances with timely hitting -- and then, after finally breaking out of their offensive slump yesterday, the Giants used a grand slam (the very weapon the Rocks deployed against them last Monday in an epic 14-inning victory) on the way to a soul-crushing 9-5 win.
Fortunately, the other point I made in the aforementioned post -- about the Rockies' extremely favorable September schedule -- remains the key factor in the wild-card race, which is all tied up at this writing. The Rockies start a ten-game homestand tomorrow versus a trio of also-rans: the Mets, the Diamondbacks and the Reds. And while that's followed by nine games on the road, the matchups again favor the Rockies: Six games against the Diamondbacks and the Padres, plus three more against the Giants, whose own September slate is much tougher. S.F. plays the division-leading Dodgers six times, including three contests immediately before the Rockies come to town, plus the Phillies, the Brewers and the Cubs.
If the Rockies can't get well under these circumstances, they don't deserve to make the playoffs. And I believe they do.
