NLCS IGT

[Frayed Knot]

Holliday & Reynolds have traded HRs - 1-1 bottom 4.

First 3 innings = 3 DPs turned by Colorado

This Tulowitski guy can play a little. Moves like Vizquel but is 6'2" 200+
NL looks like they'll be sporting some pretty good short-stops for the next coupla years: the two guys here Tulowitski & Drew; plus Reyes, Ramirez, Rollins, Hardy in Milwaukee, and the Dodgers top prospect is a Taiwanese SS (Chin-Lung Hu) who got a September call-up. And only Rollins from that group is over 25.

[Zvon]

Yea, that pivot by Tulowitski earlier looked amazing when he did it, in real time.
On slo-mo replay it looked rather simple, also a compliment to him.

[smg58]

And Yorvit Torrealba becomes the latest unlikely hero for the Rockies.

[metirish]

20 wins in the last 21 games, amazing and they go for the sweep tomorrow night.

[Centerfield]

Exactly one month ago today, the Colorado Rockies were 76-72, 6.5 games behind the Diamondbacks.

The New York Mets were 83-64. 4.5 games ahead of Philadelphia.

[Valadius]

Oh please don't bring this up... my day was going pretty good.

[Farmer Ted]

Paging Elias, when has a team ever won 20 of 21? We'll never see this again.

[metirish]

Didn't Oakland under Art Howe do it?

[Benjamin Grimm]

The Rockies hot streak is even more remarkable when you consider how well-timed it was.

I hope they become the first team ever to have an 11-0 post season.

[Valadius]

Art Howe's 2002 A's won 20 in a row.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Wow! They REALLY battled!

[G-Fafif]

How about a team that wins 26 consecutive games in September and finishes fourth?

Your 1916 Giants...

http://baseballguru.com/maxblue/analysismaxblue01.html

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

That strong finish probably gave management and the fans a sense of anticipation for the teams's chances in the 1917 season. Fortunately, Johnny Lunchbucket was not duped out of his hard earned cash this time as the Giants went on to win their 4th NL Pennant with 98 victories during the 1917 season.

[G-Fafif]

After which, Johnny Lunchbucket went marching off to war.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The Rockies still have a chance to "run the table" in the postseason, which has never been done in the WC Era and hasn't been done at all since the 1976 Big Red Machine.

[G-Fafif]

The '95 Mariners' somewhat similar run, at least in spirit, just kind of ran out of gas in the ALCS. I keep waiting for that to happen to these refuse-to-losers, but it doesn't. It, like the Mile High altitude, is breathtaking.

[Frayed Knot]

The thing about the Rox' run is that without a pinch-hit, 2-out, 2-strike hit by Tony Gwynn Jr. of all people for the Brewers against his papa's old team and Trevor Hoffman no less on the final Saturday of the season the Rox are ELIMINATED and the streak up to that point doesn't matter and they never get the chance to add on to it in post-season.

Since having virtually ZERO margin for error with ~2 weeks to go every single thing has gone their way.

[G-Fafif]

Every single thing, indeed. Rockies have just put six on the board in the fourth, the last four facilitated by a two-out error by Conor Jackson. Matsui drives in the third and then Holliday takes Owings over the wall.

It's Colorado 6-1. Taking into account anything can happen in Coors Field, this is amazin', amazin', amazin'.

[metirish]

Rockies win 6 - 4, congrats to them. I watched the first few innings but these past few NL games start too late for me.

[Valadius]

Congrats to the Rockies and Todd Helton.

[Frayed Knot]

It's been Rockies Around the Clock

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yup. I was out after 3 innings last night. But congrats to the new NL champeens. Now, a 9-day vacation, then... World Series in snow!

[metirish]

So what do you do if you're the Rockies between now and the 24th , if the ALCS goes the distance then game 7 gets played on Sunday the 21st, the last thing the Rockies want is to be sitting around all that time.

[Frayed Knot]

They're going to sit around until next Wednesday whether the AL series ends quickly or not.

[metirish]

Um yeah that's true, seems like a long time though.

[Guest Edgy DC]

clint Hurdle has led the UMDB hit parade three or four days in a row, having knocked the dangling Joe Torre out of the top spot.

[Benjamin Grimm]

He's off to a big start today, too.

He's looking good to actually win the month. And it's rare that somebody not named David Wright does that.

[Centerfield]

We need to set some protocol here so we can avoid awkward moments like this where men jump in joy with each other. From now on, pitcher jumps, catcher catches him. That's the way it's going to be.

If you've got a fat pitcher and a catcher with a bad back, make sure they're not your battery when the last out is recorded.

[metsmarathon]

tim mccarver:

you'd think that giving up a leadoff walk would be the most dangerous thing a pitcher could do. one would think that more multirun innings have been started by a leadoff walk than home run. and we've researched this. and this year more multi-run innings were started with a leadoff home run than a leadoff walk.

me:

why is this so hard to figure out? with a leadoff home run, you only need one more run for a multi-run inning.

with a leadoff walk, you still need two runs, and that one baserunner you do have is a candidate for a double play.

[Frayed Knot]

]why is this so hard to figure out?

It shouldn't be, except that "baseball people" (McCarver included) long held that HRs (whether leadoff or not) tended to stifle further scoring on account of they cleared the bases and therefore short-circuited rallies. 'Keeping the line moving' with BBs and basehits is much better for multi-run innings ... or so went the conventional thinking.

I never bought it either.