Rockies need sense of urgency
By George Kay
It was my first visit to Coors Field since last fall’s World Series. The Colorado Rockies were in the midst of a four-game weekend series with the Florida Marlins.
Colorado had won on Thursday and Friday, and I watched them out-slug the Marlins on Saturday night before losing a 10-5 game on Sunday afternoon. So Colorado won three out of four against a decent Florida team … the Marlins are over .500 and in second place in the NL East.
The Rockies finished the weekend with a record 15 games south of .500, seven games in back of Arizona, in fourth place in the NL West -- a surprisingly poor division so far this season.
Even the Diamondbacks and the Dodgers at the top of the division are struggling to reach .500. That leads me to the question that the Rockies’ fans have been asking all season.
Was last fall’s incredible October run just a fluke or is this a club with a real chance to be competitive for the foreseeable future?
The Colorado ball club has about the same players who went on that sensational run to the National League title by winning 21 out of 22 down the stretch last fall.
Why has this summer’s team been so mediocre? For some reason, the hitting has been sporadic, and the pitching has been up and down.
Lately, Troy Tulowitzski, Todd Helton and Jeff Francis have gone to the disabled list and that has created even more instability.
Colorado Manager Clint Hurdle has been juggling his line-up in recent weeks, especially the middle infielders. One day, Clint Barmes is at shortstop, then the next day he plays second base, and that holds true for Omar Quintanilla, as well.
Jeff Baker has played second and first, and it is difficult to see any of these players feeling comfortable from day to day.
Still, the Rockies are not so far behind that they cannot get hot and right back into contention for the division crown. Remember, we’re only a little more than halfway through the season.
Now is the time for Colorado to make a run, more likely for the divisional crown rather than the wild card since their poor win-loss record just about will rule them out of the wild card consideration, unlike last season.
I think that most Rockies fans are convinced their club has to adopt a sense of urgency that has been lacking to this point.
Win or lose, it’s always enjoyable to visit Denver’s Lodo and Coors Field, but it’s a whole lot more fun when the ball club is performing at a higher level.