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Rockies look to avoid layoff letdown

Intra-squad games in plans as Colorado seeks to keep momentum

Image: MatsuiAP
Kazuo Matsui and the Colorado Rockies hope to be busy with more than media interviews as they await the start of the World Series.

Tony DeMarco
DENVER - The things the National League-champion Colorado Rockies have to worry about these days …

World Series ticket requests, for certain.

For another, explaining the ins-and-outs of postseason play to the uninformed.

“Now my daughter (5-year-old Tierney) thinks that after every game, we come in here and jump around and pour beer on each other,’’ Todd Helton said.

And one more thing: According to the Denver Post, Helton also made sure to tell Tony Gwynn to pass along a heartfelt ‘thank you’ — albeit no playoff share — to his son and namesake. Why, you ask?

Because it was Tony Gwynn Jr.’s hit that keyed a come-from-behind Milwaukee Brewers’ win over the San Diego Padres on the final Saturday of the regular season — when a Padres’ victory would have clinched the wild-card spot.

Instead, the Padres also lost the next day in Milwaukee, and to the Rockies in the instant-classic play-in game in Coors Field on Oct. 1. And the Rockies haven’t lost since in their historic 21-1 run that has altered a franchise mind-set and shocked the baseball world.

But not that high on the Rockies’ list of concerns is the eight days between the end of their convincing sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Championship Series and Game 1 of the World Series. Because like every other potential pot hole the Rockies have encountered since their amazing streak began, they have a plan to hurdle this one — pun intended.

And here it is: After a Thursday off-day, there will be a four-inning simulated game on Friday, seven-inning intra-squad games on Saturday and Sunday, a short workout on Monday before the flight east, and then the mandatory workout/press conferences schedule on Tuesday.

There will be base-running, defensive drills and hopefully enough intensity to prevent a Detroit Tigers-like World Series meltdown following their six-day break after winning the ALCS last October.

  Baseball playoffs

A look back at Red Sox vs. Rockies

“The more effort we put into it, the more we’ll get out of it,’’ Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said.

Hurdle also said that seven of the 10 teams that have waited five days or more between the LCS and the World Series went on to win the latter, so the concern may be overblown.

“If you look for good, you’ll find good,’’ Hurdle said. “If you look for bad, you’ll find bad. This is an opportunity, just like any other we’ve had this season. We’re going to meet it.’’

And really, why shouldn’t the Rockies be confident? They have lost exactly one game in just more than a month. Only the 1935 Chicago Cubs also put up a 21-1 run down the stretch, and that was in regular season play before losing in the World Series. Only the 1976 Cincinnati Reds also swept consecutive playoff series to go 7-0 in a postseason — an NLCS and a World Series, in their case.

Yes, the Rockies are traveling in some exclusive circles these days, and somewhere along the line, have altered their own belief systems as a result. And eight days without a game isn’t going to change that.

“We’re beyond the point of just being hot, for me,’’ Hurdle said.


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