|
Rockies Win With Sleight of Hand |
|
|
|
|
Written by News Editor
|
|
Tuesday, 02 October 2007 |
Lebanon news, Lebanese radio
station , world news, music, discover Lebanon, visit Beirut, Radio sawt
Beirut
|
It took extra innings in an extra game to fill out the National League playoff picture. And it was not without controversy. The Rockies defeated the Padres Monday to secure the second playoff berth in the team’s history.
It was a demonstration of contrasts. Whereas the Mets lost 12 of their last 17 games to blow a 7-game lead in the N.L. East, the Rockies won 14 of 15 to erase a 4-game wild-card gap with the Padres. San Diego had three days and three games to earn the one victory it needed to secure its third consecutive postseason berth. It failed. Colorado, on the other hand, made the most of its one chance to advance to the postseason.
“Nothing has come easy for the Rockies,” reports the Rocky Mountain News this morning.
“This is a team nine games below .500 in mid-May but steadily climbed back,” Tracy Ringolsby writes in the RMN, “undaunted by an eight-game losing streak that saw closer Brian Fuentes blow four saves in seven games, then put on the biggest stretch rally in baseball history.”
It was San Diego’s closer who was victimized Monday in Colorado. Trevor Hoffman, the all-time saves leader, blew his second save in three days. “I’m having a hard time expressing myself right now,” Hoffman said. “I wish I could, but I can’t after what happened tonight.”
What happened? Hoffman entered with a two-run lead that was quickly erased by back-to-back doubles by Kaz Matsui (yes, Met fans, that Kaz Matsui) and Troy Tulowitzki in the bottom of the 13th.
That set up “the kid Rocks’ Paul Bunyan,” Matt Holliday, to be the hero. After badly misjudging a fly ball earlier in the game on a play that coughed up a lead, Holliday stepped to the plate with M.V.P. chants taking on a “satirical ring,” according to Dave Krieger of the Rocky Mountain News. But Holliday’s triple tied the score and put him “90 feet from expunging that nightmare fly ball, 90 feet from delivering the most joyous run in his team’s short history.”
But what happened at the end of that 90 feet? Holliday ran toward home plate on Jamey Carroll’s fly ball, but did he touch it?
“In a moment that is destined to take a prominent place in the scrapbook of Denver sports for drama and controversy,” Mark Kiszla writes for Denver Post this morning, “Holliday scored the winning run with sleight of hand.”
Bloodied and bruised, Holliday slid to the right of the plate and reached out with his left arm.
“When folks retell this story 100 years from now, he still will not have touched home plate,” Kiszla writes.
“You’ll see it on instant replay a million times over the next few days — and over the next few years,” Mike Littwin writes in the RMN, “or maybe you’ve got it so deeply imprinted in your brain by now that you already see it every time you close your eyes.”
If not, you can take a look for yourself, again. ESPN breaks down Hoffman’s collapse, the Rockies’ 3-run 13th and the final play at the plate. The consensus: Holliday probably didn’t touch the plate.
Asked after the game if he touched home, Holliday responded, “Yeah, the umpire called me safe.”
But it will all add to the lore of the Rockies, who will now face the Phillies in the N.L. divisional series. “You can’t draw it up any better than that,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “You don’t think that someone drawing this up doesn’t have a sense of drama — a sense of humor?”
Padres fans are not likely to agree.
Much of the media is talking about the slide at home, the scrappy, rough-and-tumble Rockies who have defied the odds and demonstrated grit and commitment — predictable underdog themes. But what of the Padres? Their ace, Jake Peavy started the game. They had a lead. Their Hall-of-Fame-destined closer had the ball in his hand at the end.
The magnitude of the Padres’ fall pales in comparison to the Mets’, but is it any less agonizing for San Diego fans |
News 
