Colorado Rockies: Part two of our tribute to Clint Hurdle

The 2007 season

The 2007 season was a season in which, once again, Rockies fans thought that the team would fade into oblivion without a wimper of getting close to the playoffs.

Clint Hurdle’s contract was extended in the offseason but only for the 2007 season as he was still on the hot seat, as Troy Rench of The Denver Post reported at the time. So if the team didn’t put up good numbers, he very well could have gotten the axe after the season ended.

Before the 2007 season, Hurdle said that wanted to “prepare (the team) more effectively” as he admitted that he overmanaged during the second half of 2006.

"“I am going to do things differently,” said Hurdle, “because it’s time.”"

They started of the season with a subpar 10-16 start. They essentially treaded water in May and June as they entered July with a record of 39-42, which was good enough for fourth place in the NL West, eight games back of the San Diego Padres, who were led by rookie manager Bud Black. The Rockies were also only eight games ahead of having the worst record in the National League.

After going 15-9 in July, the Rockies were still only 54-51 and still in fourth place in the NL West. However, they were still well within striking distance as the first-place Diamondbacks were only 3.5 games ahead of the fourth place Rockies.

The Rockies stumbled a bit in August as they went 15-14 and they finished the month with a 69-65 record, which meant the Rockies were still in fourth place and five games back of both the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres, as they were in a virtual tie for first place (the D’Backs had one more win but also one more loss than the Padres).

In the first half of September, the Rockies, once again, just were treading water, as entering play on Sunday, September 16th, the Rockies had a record of 76-72 and in fourth place, 6.5 games back of the Arizona Diamondbacks for first place.

The Rockies, under the tutelage of Hurdle, went on to win 14 of their last 15 games with all but the first win coming against their NL West opponents.

The team pitched to a 3.13 ERA in that span (it was 4.45 entering what became known as the “Rocktober streak”) and they also hit a startling .317/.384/.528 while scoring a mind boggling 6.8 runs per game.

Even with going 14-1, it was not good enough to secure the NL West or even a Wild Card spot outright, but they tied the San Diego Padres for the lone Wild Card spot so a Game 163 had to be played in Denver.