Okay, with just over a quarter of the season left, it's time to start thinking about locking up home field advantage throughout the NL portion of the playoffs. Right now, the Rockies are 3.5 games behind LA, 2.5 behind Philly and one game behind St. Louis. A somewhat safe number to overcome all three teams would be 30 more wins, but we could probably pull it off with 29 as long as four or five of those came against the Dodgers. So 25 wins in the other 35 games means losing tonight's not really an option. We have to beat San Francisco and LA and San Francisco again. And then keep on winning through the rest of September.
What?
Too soon? :)
Okay, obviously I'm giddy about this:
And how it makes so many people so wrong, just by virtue of being as close as it is. Clearly nothing's decided yet, though and the next eleven games should tell us how far we should get our hopes up.
At any rate, here are some links:
MLB.com
- Lisa Winston notes that the Rockies aren't looking past tonight's game at Washington, but my guess is that they'll probably be looking sideways as Cincinnati and Los Angeles.
Inside the Rockies
- Jack Etkin gives a recap of last night's game including the note that Jason Marquis' win last night, mixed with a no decision for Adam Wainwright in St. Louis, puts the two in a tie for most W's in the NL.
Denver Post
- More on Marquis' second half and other notes.
- CarGo's tying a Rockies record shared by Dante Bichette, Larry Walker and Matt Holliday puts him in elite company according to Troy Renck's recap.
- Barmes' power surge sign of times at second - The Denver Post
LA Times
- The Dodgers are bringing in a secret weapon to keep the Rockies at bay, Vicente Padilla. Padilla will make his debut for the blue in Coors Field next week.
- The Dodgers remain cocky, but the footsteps behind them are getting more difficult to ignore, last night's starter Clayton Kershaw:
"The Rockies are a good team -- winning a lot of games -- so it makes every win even that more important," he said. "I guess every loss is a little bit more disappointing, but we still control our own destiny."