Casual baseball fans who hear that the Colorado Rockies have suddenly won eight games straight, including ultra-rare road sweeps against the St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers, may start thinking about corner-turning, even though the Rocks are currently mired in fourth place among the five National League West teams, a hefty eleven-and-a-half games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. But anyone who saw (or, in my case, heard) the ending of yesterday's 5-4 win against the Brew crew knows the squad isn't blowing opponents out of their respective parks. The Rockies had a 5-1 lead in the ninth, but closer Huston Street managed to give up a three-run shot to Ryan Braun and a walk to Prince Fielder that brought the winning run to the plate before finally closing the door.
Of course, any streak will include games like this one, and there's no denying how impressive the starting pitching has been during the Rockies' latest run. But they'll need to remain steady throughout the homestand that begins today with a series about the Seattle Mariners before anyone should start expecting the squad to challenge for anything more than the 72 Ws I predicted for them at the beginning of the season. They're four games under .500 now -- and they'll have to top that mark in the near future before I'll consider looking at that half-a-glass of water any differently.
