Sweeping success: Rockies headed to NLCS

Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 7, 2007 at midnight

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A front moved into the Denver area shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday night.

Nearly three hours later, the storm hit Coors Field.

The Rockies had continued their fairy tale.

Jeff Baker, the seemingly forgotten man from the Opening Day roster, delivered a game-deciding pinch-hit single in the eighth inning that allowed the Rockies to pull out a 2-1 victory against the Philadelphia Phillies and complete a three-game sweep of the National League Division Series.

The Rockies advance to the NL Championship Series for the first time in franchise history and will face the NL West champion Arizona Diamondbacks, who earlier in the day swept the Chicago Cubs in the other NL Division Series.

"How about that? Nobody expected the Diamondbacks and Rockies to be in the National League championship this year," Rockies rookies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said. "But here we are."

It was the Rockies' first win at Coors Field in which they scored two runs or fewer since a 1-0 victory against the San Diego Padres on July 9, 2005.

There have been 20 sweeps in the history of division series play, which is in its 13th year, and there remains the possibility of two in the American League. The Boston Red Sox play at the Los Angeles Angels today and the Cleveland Indians are at the New York Yankees, with Boston and Cleveland both having 2-0 leads.

The NLCS will start Thursday in Arizona, where Game 2 is scheduled for Friday.

It will come to Coors Field for Games 3, 4, and, if necessary, Game 5, beginning a week from today.

Often-questioned Rockies manager Clint Hurdle had the answer for his team in Game 3, allowing the Rockies to move a step farther than they did in their only previous postseason appearance, the 1995 NL Division Series, which they lost to the Atlanta Braves in four games.

After Ubaldo Jimenez worked 61/3 strong innings, the only blemish a Shane Victorino home run in the seventh, the Rockies relievers finished off the Phillies, and Hurdle was able to make the right move at the right time with the lineup.

When he brought in Brian Fuentes to pitch the eighth, he pulled a double switch with center fielder Cory Sullivan, even though that meant Fuentes, who went into the seventh spot in the lineup, would hit before Sullivan.

With Philadelphia having only one left-handed reliever, J.C. Romero, Hurdle wanted to put Phillies counterpart Charlie Manuel in a bind.

Had he put Sullivan into the seventh slot, the Rockies would have had three left-handed hitters in a four-batter sequence.

As it turned out, Romero did come in to face Todd Helton with one out in the eighth and got Helton to fly out. After Garrett Atkins singled, left-handed-hitting Brad Hawpe bounced a single off the glove of diving second baseman Chase Utley.

Then, instead of having Sullivan coming up, Hurdle was able to call on the right-handed-hitting Baker, and Baker delivered the game-winning single in his postseason debut.

The Rockies got an assist from Phillies left fielder Pat Burrell in scoring their first run. After Yorvit Torrealba singled with one out in the fifth off Phillies starter Jamie Moyer, a left-hander, and was sacrificed to second by Jimenez, Kazuo Matsui hit a line drive to left field that Burrell played into a triple. Matsui had only five extra-base hits in 70 regular-season at-bats against left-handed pitchers.

But then, this has become a year to remember for the Rockies, who were nine games under .500 (18-27) on May 21 but have had the best record in baseball since June 1, and now have won 17 of their past 18 games, including a 9-8, 13-inning victory against San Diego on Monday at Coors Field in the NL wild-card tiebreaker.

"They are on one of the most amazing streaks I have seen a team have at the end of the season," Manuel said.

"We were a little tight. We were chasing balls out of the strike zone early in the game." "Their bullpen in the series was outstanding. We have one of the best offenses in baseball and they shut us down."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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