Colorado—San Francisco: Rockies On A Rocky Mountain High

The Colorado Rockies once again showed they are the real thing with an exciting come from behind win in the 14th inning in Denver last night.

The San Francisco Giants scored once in the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead while the Rockes scored in the bottom of the fifth inning to knot the score at 1-1.

Neither team would score another run till the Giants scored three times in the top of the fourteenth to take a 4-1 lead.

The Rockies were not ready to concede defeat and came right back with five runs of their own in the bottom of the fourteenth inning to take a 6-4 win.

Ryan Spilborghs, who hadn’t homered since June 29, hit a walk-off grand slam to end the game.

The Rockies won three out of four from the Giants enabling them to get some separation from the third place Giants. The Rockies are three games behind the NL West-leading Dodgers while the Giants are seven games back.

Both starters pitched great games with Jason Marquis allowing one run in eight innings and Barry Zito allowing an unearned run to score in six innings.

The Rockies appeared to be out of the race on June 3 when they were 15-and-a-half games behind the Dodgers. They had fired their longtime manager Clint Hurdle a few days earlier.

If there ever seemed a team that was done for the season it was the Rockies, but with new manager Jim Tracy at the helm the team started winning.

They were 20-32 on June 3 but have played 51-22 baseball since then. The Rockies now lead the NL wild card race with a four game lead over the Giants.

June was the turning point for the Rockies as they posted a 21-6 record for the month. They didn’t play quite as well in July with a 15-11 record, but then rebounded to post a 15-7 record so far in August.

This has been one time when changing managers seems to have helped wake up a team that seemed to be out of the race in May. It is a shame Hurdle had to lose his job for them to play better baseball.

It is amazing that the Rockies have closed the gap to three games behind the Dodgers. The Dodgers come into Denver today to play a three game series. Then the Rockies fly to San Francisco later this week to play a three game series with the Giants.

They travel again to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers in the final three games of the season. Those games could turn out to be crucial games for both teams.

The Rockies may stumble and fall back later in the season but for right now they are on a Rocky Mountain high.