Denver

Two games...that was two games.

The Rockies just dropped one of the most emotionally exhausting games I’ve ever seen, 12-11. Hey, it’s football season, so I guess they needed to have a football game score.

The big number now is 6.5 games. If the Rockies had won, it would have been 4.5 games. That’s how big it is to play the team currently in the lead of the National League wild-card race, the Philadelphia Phillies.

That was a difficult series to take. With the win on Monday, the Rockies were riding high—3.5 games out of the wild card and gaining ground with a rare road win.

Two games later, and two close losses later...well, it's not as happy times. There is no joy in D-ville.

The Rockies continue to be a tale of two teams with extremes I’ve never seen before. Home, they are a smooth team, with the best hitting numbers in the National League. On the road, they are one of the worst teams in the league.

Ubaldo Jimenez appears to be set on a record-breaking course this season. Through 10 games he is 9-1 with a 0.88 ERA and has allowed only 42 hits in 71.1 innings pitched.

Let’s not get too excited.

Update

The Rockies got some good news in regards to their bullpen on Tuesday—sort of.

Closer Huston Street visited Dr. James Andrews yesterday, and an MRI revealed no structural damage.

Usually when a player visits Andrews, the term Tommy John or rotator cuff surgery follows. The fact that this didn’t happen with Street is very good news for Rockies fans.

Spring Training for a Colorado Rockies fan represents more than just the end of a long offseason. It also offers an opportunity to get away from the cold weather that Colorado offers in February and March.

Trying to make accurate predictions in sports is nearly impossible. Nobody really knows how the season is going to play out no matter how well informed.

Injuries, slumps and surges are going to happen to every player on every team and even the most well educated fans and analysts won’t be able to predict more than a handful of outcomes.

This, after all, is why we love sports. We simply don’t know what’s going to happen and that’s where all the excitement comes from.

You've probably never heard of Matt Daley, unless you're a fan of an NL West team.

Heck, I'd never heard of him until the Rockies called the right-handed relief pitcher up early last season. Given that I know about 2000 active players, Daley's failure to merit a blip on my radar reflected his anonymity. He didn't get a big league look until he was nearly 27.

When I first heard that game 3 of the NLDS between the Rockies and Phillies was postponed to tomorrow night, my immediate reaction was one of selfish discontent.  

This would have been a great opportunity for the Rockies to get a victory over an ancient Pedro Martinez, who I'm sure will be glad to know he will now be able to hit up the Country Buffet for an early dinner and be in bed by 7:00.

They say that sometimes you can predict the outcome of a baseball game strictly from the first batter to take his hacks.

Unfortunately for the Colorado Rockies, that saying rang true in their opening bout with the Philadelphia Phillies in Game One of the National League Division Series.

When Dexter Fowler swung at Cliff Lee's first pitch of the game, flying out weakly to right field, it was a sad portent of things to come for the red-hot Rox in their eventual 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the NL East Champions.

Yorvit Torrealba did his best to be the hero for the second night in a row, but the Colorado Rockies ended up losing in the 10th inning on a bases-loaded walk to Padres pinch-hitter Nick Hundley.