Colorado Rockies: How to avoid repeating the ’18 NLDS in ’19

Don’t get intimidated.

For all intents and purposes, the Rockies’ season ended in the sixth inning of game 3 when reliever Scott Oberg got called for a very unusual, run-scoring balk after dropping the ball on the mound.  He followed that up by allowing another run on a wild pitch.  Any sliver of hope the Rockies had was gone.  The nerves we had detected under the surface came bumbling out in an ugly display for the final tortuous innings of one of the worst playoff series in Rockies’ history.

As non-existent as the Rockies’ offense was in the Wild Card Game, the team walked into Chicago like they belonged there and they left having proved it.  Contrarily, the Rockies looked intimidated the entire NLDS.  The Brewers are a very good team, but the Rockies earned a spot in the postseason just the same and they needed to come to grips with that.

If the Rockies are going to see postseason success they need to understand how good they are.  They need to play like they belong there.  Instead, the Rockies played like they were lucky to even get in.

A mark of a good team is being able to play when the lights shine the brightest.  They did it in Chicago, now they need to keep that game plan for every difficult match-up in the postseason.  They can’t get intimidated–no matter who they play.  If they do, they will lose.  Game 3 may have shown us once and for all the real reason the Rockies got swept.  Playing scared never results in good baseball.  You need to play confident in order to see success in the playoffs–and the Rockies did not do that against Milwaukee.

If the Rockies address these issues, not only will they return to the playoffs in 2019, they will do so with a legitimate shot to make a deep run.