Has it really been nearly 10 years since the Colorado Rockies went on that magical run that culminated in the club’s first National League pennant?
In this anniversary series, ‘Rocktober Revisited’, we’re looking back on how the Rockies fared throughout the 2007 season. It’s a month-by-month look at what transpired to lead Colorado to the World Series — and a special place in the sports memory banks of everyone in the Mile High City.
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After a strong July — during which the Rockies posted a 15-9 record — the Mile High men slowed their roll a bit in August of 2007. Although they would finish with a 15-14 record during that month, they found themselves farther behind from the division leader than they had been at the beginning of the month, trailing both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Diego Padres by five games instead of four and a half.
After a narrow, 3-4 loss at the hands of the Florida Marlins started off Colorado’s August on a bit of a sour note, the team regrouped to win five of their next seven matchups. During that brief period, they also suffered a heartbreaking, 10-inning loss in Atlanta, 6-5.
Thanks to that very same streak, the Rockies entered a serendipitous time frame, during which they moved into the third-place position in the National League West. For the next 19 games, they enjoyed that No. 3 spot for the most part, notwithstanding a little back-and-forth with the San Diego Padres at times.
During a particularly run-happy, three-game series toward the beginning of the month, the Rockies pummeled the poor Milwaukee Brewers to a pulp two nights in a row to complete an easy sweep.
On Aug. 7 — after winning the first game of the series, 6-2 — Colorado’s offense came out in full force as they embarrassed the ‘Brew Crew’, 11-4. Throughout the first five and a half innings that night, Milwaukee got out in front thanks to RBIs from Johnny Estrada, Corey Hart and Bill Hall to go up 3-0.
In the bottom of the 6th, however, things started to fall apart fast for Brewers’ starting pitcher Chris Capuano, as he gave up five runs in that inning alone, fueled by Troy Tulowitzki’s lead-off solo homer. Two innings later and after another Rockies run, when the Milwaukee relief tried to do a little damage control, it failed miserably as it gave up five more runs to bring the score to 11-3 before panning out at 11-4.
The very next night, the Rockies got out ahead quickly and never looked back. Over the first three innings, they worked up an 11-0 lead, terrorizing the Brewers’ Yovani Gallardo in their wake. By the end of that game, they had won 19-4 thanks to a six-RBI performance from Garrett Atkins.
In the very next series, after dropping their first two games against the Chicago Cubs, the Rockies put on a clinic once again to help reclaim their footing in a four-game-series-tying effort. On Aug. 11, they bested the Cubbies, 15-2, after Tulo and ‘Kaz Mat’ (Kazuo Matsui) combined for seven RBIs.
From there on out, the Rockies held steady at .500 (9-9) to bring their overall record to 69-65 by August 31. Although they were still in fourth place out of five teams in the NL West at that point, things were about to drastically change.
The stage was set for a September that Colorado would never forget.
