A team's record in one run games might have a little to do with the coaching, it might have something to do with the quality of the bullpen, but by and large the record in such games is as much determined by luck as anything else. The opposite end of the spectrum, on the other hand, tells a different story and one can gleen quickly how a team stacks up with its peers by checking how it does in blowouts. At any rate, going into September the Rockies record in games decided by five runs or more was a paltry thirteen wins and thirty losses. In seventeen games in September, however, and culminating in last night's 20-1 thrashing of the Pods, they have turned things around and posted a five and two record in blowout games.
Why the change? For the month the Rox are averaging over six and a half runs a game on offense, so that certainly has something to do with it, combine that with the return of Aaron Cook and good starting pitching in general and we start to see a more complete picture of how the team is performing so well. Unfortunately one more element is that all seventeen September games thus far have been against weak divisional rivals, so perhaps we can't read too much into this just yet, but it is one more thing to be optimistic about heading into '06.