Colorado Rockies: Doing what they have to do in a pennant chase

The Colorado Rockies have played good baseball during the September playoff push, withstanding the disastrous Dodgers series. Thanks to that, they have put themselves in strong playoff position as I previously wrote in this article. After all, all they have to do is win ballgames.

The Colorado Rockies enter Thursday with a .5 game lead on the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL West (and the Dodgers do not play until Friday). They would also have a strong hold on the Wild Card if it came to that as well.

In fact, the Colorado Rockies nearly have an 88 percent chance of making the playoffs (after it was 25% this time last week). The Colorado Rockies haven’t quite followed my scenario for an easy division win but they have put themselves in position to do so the hard way. Win and they’re in.

The lineup has balanced itself out and even survived an injury to Trevor Story. The pieces are seemingly coming together at the right time, but the season is far from over. Every game is now a potential playoff game of sorts and the rotation and lineup has got to continue to pick each other up. They have to find their stride when it matters most.

More from Colorado Rockies News

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: 3 things we appreciated from Tuesday in San Francisco
• What Bill Schmidt’s comments mean for the Colorado Rockies in 2023

Kyle Freeland has been the ace the Rockies have coveted for a long time. German Marquez has been striking batters out at a historic rate for the Rockies and Jon Gray has been an up and down ride in his starts, but when he’s good he’s really good.

The other starters have shown the ability to keep the Rockies in ballgames throughout the season although they haven’t done so of late.

The lineup is talented and dynamic throughout. Buddy Black has the freedom to mix and match pieces depending on the matchup while maintaining a core touting Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story that ranks right up there with the best of them. So if we find ourselves in another Rocktober then the talent level is such to just keep on winning.

With every win either regular season or playoff the Rockies get one step closer to the ultimate goal of Colorado’s first pennant.