Major League Baseball

Rockies should worry about Giants, not Dodgers

Published Aug. 28, 2009 3:43 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Talk about a setup.




The Dodgers arrived at Coors Field on Tuesday whispering sweet nothings.

They left town slightly more than 48 hours later, having served a reminder to the Rockies about who is the boss in the NL West.

The NL wild card is still viable for the Rockies — if they don't get sidetracked by the last two games.

The NL West, however, is the Dodgers' — even if manager Joe Torre was talking nice about his team's closest pursuer this week.

"We feel (the Rockies) coming,'' said Torre. "That is a good team. They hustle all the time and play fundamentally sound baseball. If you do that and believe, some good things will happen.''

A lot of good things have happened of late with the Rockies, who have won 54 of 81 games since Jim Tracy became manager; have rallied from a 15 1/2-game deficit and 12 games below .500 back on June 4 to their current 72-57, four games behind the Dodgers, and are talking about their focus being on a division title, not a wild-card invite to the postseason.

The last couple of days, however, the Dodgers did reinforce some reason for doubt.

The Rockies pulled out a 5-4, 10-inning victory in the series opener on Tuesday night, but after that, they became the victims. The Dodgers took advantage of fill-in starter Josh Fogg in a 6-1 victory on Wednesday and finished off the series with a 3-2 victory on Thursday. Matt Kemp, the second batter of the game, hit a two-run home run to give the Dodgers a lead they never gave up.

"That's a good team over there,'' said Tracy.

The Dodgers have made sure that the Rockies know that. The Dodgers have won 12 of 15 games against the Rockies this season. The two teams won't meet again until the final three games of the season.

"Wouldn't it be something if those three games matter?'' asked Tracy.

It might be worth watching, but the history the Dodgers have built this year would hang over the Rockies if those three games did matter. How dominant have the Dodgers been so far against the Rockies? So dominant that the Rockies will point to the fact they have won two of six games against the Dodgers since their managerial change, but two of the losses were by one run and a third came in extra innings.

"We didn't win the series, but we played great,'' said Tracy.

But not great enough.

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball