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DENVER -- The feeling at Coors Field on Sunday can be best described as "bittersweet."
Another tumultuous season at 20th and Blake is about to come to a close. It would be easy to say that the most telling story is that the Rockies must win their series finale against the Dodgers in order to avoid tying their worst single-season home record of 35-46, previously set in 2012. But ... well, yeah. That is probably the most telling story.
But Rockies manager Walt Weiss believes a positive spin can be put on a campaign that has saw the Rockies lose 90 games for the third time in four years.
"Yeah, it's tough," Weiss said of 2015. "But I'm encouraged by some of the pieces we have in place. It's taking some time, but I feel good about where we're headed."
As we wrote after the Rockies' 8-6 victory on Saturday, several players are closing the season in intriguing fashion. Many of those players will return for next year and beyond, hopefully contributing to the next competitive group of purple pinstripers. But it's going to take some patience -- something Weiss is asking for from Rockies fans.
"First of all, I thank them for sticking in with us," Weiss said. "We drew very well again this year. They come out and support us and we want to reward them for that."
The Rockies didn't exactly do that this year, but finishing a sweep of the National League West-leading Dodgers -- and keeping them from clinching the division -- would be a sweet ending to a mostly bitter season. Weiss hopes the latter description won't be as applicable in the future.
"We do everything we can," Weiss said. "We've got a lot of good people involved, but we've got to get this thing rolling again."
Back to the Dodgers, their magic number to clinch a postseason berth remains at two after their loss combined with the San Francisco Giants' win on Saturday. The Giants start their series finale against the Oakland Athletics five minutes before first pitch in LoDo. If the Bay Area battle moves quickly enough, the Dodgers should know prior to the final innings whether they'll have a chance to celebrate before they head to San Francisco.