Carlos Gonzalez’ bat is heating up and so are the rest of the Rockies behind him.
Hitting close to the .300 mark and piling on the home runs and RBIs lately is the left, no, center … oh, now right fielder, “little pony” Gonzalez.
The Rockies have been trying to do their late-season magic trick of milling in the middle of the pack (below middle this season) and then piling on the runs and wins to power into a wild card spot. The only problem is this isn’t 2007 or 2009, this is 2011 and the Rockies haven’t been above .500 since June 21. They also hadn’t won a Sunday game in 17 tries.
It isn’t a stretch to say that the baseball gods didn’t want the Rockies to win on his day. They gave the Rockies a bone this past Sunday though, and maybe they are giving them a bit more leeway lately.
Their winning series against the Dodgers and Marlins have now put them back into the single digits in the NL West race, which was a tall order. Usually when a team gets double digits back in a division race — this late in the season — you can cancel Christmas, turn the car around and go home.
I honestly thought the only way they would make the playoffs was if the Giants’ and Diamondbacks’ charter planes collided midair with each other. But now, if the Giants continue to falter, the Rockies can slide into the second spot and just pray they can keep a winning pace, and that maybe Arizona will fail like the Padres did in last year’s division race.
That is asking a lot, and while it isn’t physically possible for all the planets to align, neither is it probable that Arizona and San Fran will both falter enough to allow Colorado to sneak in like the reigning champs did a short year ago.
On another less fun note, Drew Pomeranz, the cornerstone … no, keystone of the Ubaldo Jimenez trade will not be throwing again this year after needing an emergency appendectomy. He was scheduled to pitch in the bigs sometime in September.
Rest well Drew, you got shoes to fill and bases to try and keep empty come spring training.
