Fall is a beautiful time of year in the Rocky Mountains. To go with the incredible natural scenery, you also get a baseball team that heats up once the calendar flips to September.
The Colorado Rockies made a mad dash to the National League wild card in both 2007 and 2009 and are pushing for another one as they track the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves.
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Sunday’s 7-6 loss to the Dodgers doesn’t help — especially after the Rockies built an early 6-1 lead. But Colorado is still just 1 1/2 games behind the Giants in the NL West and 3 1/2 games behind the Braves in the wild card with 13 left.
Remember 2007 when they christened Rocktober for the first time? The Rockies were 69-65 going into September that year. That was before a 20-8 finish to the regular season, including wins in 13 of their last 14 games to reach the playoffs. They won a dramatic wild-card playoff against the Padres and then swept the Phillies and Diamondbacks to win the NL pennant. In all, Colorado went 21-1 before running into the Red Sox in the World Series.
The Rockies were a nonfactor in 2008. But last season they went 20-11 after Sept. 1 to grab the wild card again. This season — fueled by shortstop Troy Tulowitzki‘s stunning 14 homers and 34 RBI in 18 games — they are 13-5 in September.
