King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Red-hot Rockies sweep into World Series. Now they'll cool their heels. Plus: Indians lead Red Sox 2-1. And: Where's that Zelasko poetry?
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Oct. 16, 2007 | Would you believe 21 out of 22?
The Colorado Rockies finally gave up that two-out RBI hit to the Arizona Diamondbacks Monday night in Denver, a three-run homer by Chris Snyder in the eighth that only served to make the end of the game a little more of a nail-biter as the Rockies swept to their first National League championship with a 6-4 win. Matt Holliday hit a three-run homer to sew up the series MVP.
The Rox beat the Diamondbacks in four straight games. They've won seven straight in the playoffs, 10 straight overall. They entered the playoffs having won three straight elimination games to end the season. They've won 21 out of 22. No matter how many times you look at that number, it just never stops looking crazy. Boxing champs go 21-1 against tomato cans. Baseball teams don't do it.
The Rockies have done it and now -- they wait.
They'll play the Cleveland Indians or the Boston Red Sox in the World Series starting next Wednesday. The Indians took a 2-1 lead in the American League Championship Series with a 4-2 win Monday night in Cleveland, Jake Westbrook outdueling Daisuke Matsuzaka, Kenny Lofton homering for the winners.
Soft-tosser Paul Byrd of the Indians and knuckleballer Tim Wakefield of the Sox will take the ball in Game 4 Tuesday night. Wednesday's an off day, and then C.C. Sabathia and Josh Beckett will stage a rematch of Game 1 on Thursday in Game 5.
Through it all, the Rockies will wait. They'll be off for eight full days, longer than anybody has ever been off prior to a World Series. That can only be bad for them, unless, of course, it's good. It'll definitely be one of those things. Or neither of them. That much we know.
The longest wait before this was six days off, which two teams have had to sit through. Last year's Detroit Tigers swept the Oakland A's in the ALCS, but they lost their momentum during the time off. They played sloppy baseball and lost 4-1 to the 83-win St. Louis Cardinals in the Series.
The other team that sat idle for six days was the 1995 Atlanta Braves, who had swept the Cincinnati Reds in the NLCS. The time off did them a world of good. They won the first two games against the Indians in the Series and took them in six.
So I think we can say pretty definitively that eight days off will either kill the Rockies' momentum or let them rest up. The Indians or Red Sox could have as many as five dead days before the World Series starts, or as few as two.
If you know what either of those layoffs will do to either of those teams, you probably knew the Rockies were going to win 21 out of 22 games. In which case, you should have spoken up.
Next page: Quiet times on the Zelasko watch. Plus: Lofton. And: "Go!" "Rockies!"