I'm back from Egypt and it looks like I missed quite a lot in fifteen days. I'm still pretty tired (I traveled for 28 hours yesterday--yes, 28 hours) so I'll keep this brief.
An epic comeback win last night (the largest ninth inning comeback in Rockies' history) to defeat the Cardinals placed Colorado seven games over .500 for the first time this year. It was only the 12th comeback win of the year for the Rockies (2nd fewest in MLB). Hopefully going forward the Rockies won't have to make their comebacks from six runs down in one inning. Dave Krieger captures last night's awesomeness pretty well.
With the win, Colorado moves within four games of San Diego for first place in the NL West. Troy Renck certainly sees the Padres as a threat given their play thus far, while I remain unconvinced as to their long-term juggernaut potential. Sure, their pitching has been lights-out, but San Diego's hitting has not. I just don't see their success continuing. As I've said all year, I look towards the Dodgers as being the Rockies' biggest threat for the division title.
Because bold predictions in this space is what I've become known for in these parts, I'd like to make another one. When Troy Tulowitzki returns from injury, Colorado will be alone in first place in the NL West. They won't relinquish the lead once Tulo returns either.
The reason for this optimism: a regression toward respectability in terms of offensive performance in late-inning high leverage situations combined with the return of the Rockies' second-best starter from injury this Friday to add to Colorado's already league-best pitching staff. Sounds like a winning combination to me.
SB Nation Denver (and by that I mean Russ) recaps last night in their daily Peaks and Valleys post.
Jim Armstrong revisits the 2008 Matt Holliday trade (at least the CarGo part of it). I've explained previously that the Rockies got the better end of that deal and this year has done little to change my mind (All-Star team bid notwithstanding).
Let's hope that the Rockies can keep rolling against Jaime Garcia (the real ROY this year so far) tonight.