December 4, 2008
Rockies sweep away some pain
Like sunlight brought forth when a window shade ravels into its roller, the Colorado Rockies' flawless run to the World Series sheds new light on the Mets' abysmal September.
Rewind to the middle of last month. On a dreary, overcast Saturday afternoon at Shea Stadium, the Phillies beat the Mets 5-3 and were two-thirds of the way through a three-game sweep in Queens.
Holding forth in the visitors' locker room after that Sept. 15 game, Philadelphia's Aaron Rowand said the standings were not an accurate measure of which teams were excelling at that late point in the regular season.
"The team that¹s playing best at the end of the year is the one that wins the World Series," the centerfielder said. He cited the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, that postseason's weakest regular-season team and its World Series champion.
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In fact, Rowand was more likely thinking of his Fightin' Phils, for whom he¹d slapped in two runs that day as the Mets' bullpen coughed up a loss after six helpful innings from Pedro Martinez.
Down the way in their Shea clubhouse, the Mets, heads bowed, still led the National League East by 4 1/2 games at that point, but their ineptitude -- and Philadelphia¹s solidity -- would rapidly close them out of the postseason in the next 15 days.
Also on Sept. 15, the Rockies, heads unbowed, trailed NL wild-card leader San Diego by 4 1/2 games.
Few within the 100-mile orbit between New York and Philadelphia would have accepted then that a 1995 expansion team from Denver was opening a ruthless, marvelous winning surge that was going to sweep through the Phillies in early October.
But unlike the Mets, who lost again on Sept. 16, the Rockies squashed the Florida Marlins 13-0 that day and inaugurated their historic charge through
22 games with victories in all but one.
Colorado won the NL Wild Card from San Diego, beating the Padres in a postseason play-in game on Oct. 1, then swept through Philadelphia in the Divisional Series.
On Monday night, Colorado completed its sweep of Arizona to win the NL pennant.
If Rowand's formulation holds, the Rockies could win the title and give the Mets' historic collapse in the NL East a positive companion in baseball lore.
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Copyright © 2008, AM New York
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