From Afar and Up Close, Rockies Resilency Impresses Holliday
| Sinice ASB | W | L | Pct |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardinals | 33 | 19 | .635 |
| Rockies | 29 | 20 | .592 |
| Brewers | 29 | 20 | .592 |
| Braves | 30 | 22 | .577 |
| Cubs | 29 | 23 | .558 |
| Mets | 27 | 23 | .540 |
| Dodgers | 26 | 24 | .520 |
| Nationals | 26 | 24 | .520 |
| Pirates | 24 | 24 | .500 |
| D-backs | 24 | 25 | .490 |
| Phillies | 21 | 29 | .420 |
| Padres | 19 | 29 | .396 |
| Reds | 20 | 31 | .392 |
| Giants | 18 | 31 | .367 |
| Marlins | 16 | 30 | .348 |
Matt Holliday is a Rockie.
The Rockies organization is where he began his professional baseball career. It’s the organization where he will end his professional baseball career. And it is, he admits, the organization that even during a nine-year absence where he was with the A’s, Cardinals and Yankees, he always kept tabs on.
And in the early part of 2018, when it appeared he had played his final game and was spending his summer throwing batting practice to his sons and their friends, Holliday kept watching the Rockies taking charge in the NL West, and welcoming the chance last month to rejoin the franchise for the stretch run.
He was impressed by the Rockies from afar.
And he has become an even bigger believer now that he is getting an up-close-and-personal look at things as a member of the Rockies roster.
The 5-4, walk-off victory against the Diamondbacks thanks to the first walk-off home run of DJ LeMaheiu’s career on Wednesday night was the epitome of what impressed and impresses Holliday.
What’s more, it improved the Rockies’ record since the All-Star Break to 29-20, second best in the NL in that time period, and it was the 22nd time in those 29 games that the Rockies have come from behind to win, as twitter follower Patrick Wayne pointed out.
And it reinforced what Holliday felt all along.
“It’s a mindset,” said Holliday. “There are a lot of strong-minded players in this clubhouse, who are confident they are going to win every game, and each time they do, they build on that confidence. It’s part of the fabric of this team. These guys believe in themselves.”
Holliday should know the feeling. He was signed by the Rockies to what was a record-setting $840.000 signing bonus as a seventh-round selection in 1998, when he passed up a scholarship to quarterback Oklahoma State.
He was a critical part of the 2007 Rockies who rallied from fourth place in the NL West early in September to claim the NL wild-card when he made the memorable head-first slide into home plate in the Game 163 playoff with the Padres that gave the Rockies the invite to a post-season that ended with the franchise’s only World Series appearance.
A seven-time All-Star in his career, Holliday earned the honor three times with the Rockies, including during that 2007 season when he won an NL batting title, led the NL in RBI, earned the second of his four Silver Slugger Awards (three coming in a Rockies uniform) and was the NLCS MVP.
And now he has a role in trying to help the Rockies add to their limited post-season legacy with what could be the first division title in their 26-year history and possibly even a first world championship.
“I was following what was going on pretty close,” Holliday said of his watching the Rockies from afar earlier this summer. “These guys have a fire. They have a mission they are on. When you have guys like DJ, Nolan (Arenado), Trevor (Story), I know them a little from afar, and they expect to be successful.”
Wednesday’s game underscored the resiliency of the Rockies. They claimed their eighth walk-off win of the season, the fifth courtesy of a walk-off home run. The bullpen came to the rescue of starter Jon Gray, and turned in a club-record five perfect innings, one more than the previous record set Sept. 16, 2012 against the Braves.
Chris Rusin and Scott Oberg had six-up-six-down, two-inning efforts, and then, with the Rockies trailing 4-3 worked a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out two of the three hitters he faced, setting up the bottom of the ninth, which Gerardo Parra led off with a pinch-hit single, and after Charlie Blackmon sacrificed Parra to second, LeMahieu unloaded the home run, leaving the Coors Field fans to chant, “DJ, DJ, DJ.”
“I don’t know if there is a confidence (about late-inning comebacks),” said LeMahieu,” but I know in the last month or two, the at-bats have been really good from the seventh inning on. It seems the guys really bear down there.”
And on Wednesday night, Rusin, whose versatility out of the bullpen the last two years earned him the nickanme “Swiss Army Knife,” brought back memories of what he is capable of accomplishing. It’s been a frustrating season for him. After a combined bullpen ERA of 2.62 the past two seasons, he took the mound on Wednesday night with a 6.84 ERA.
Twenty five pitches later — 18 strikes and seven balls — he had registered six outs, two of which came on strikeouts, including ending the fifth inning with a called strikeout of Paul Goldschmidt, who is hitting .397 with 15 home runs and 38 RBI since May 27.
Consider that Gray needed 94 pitches, 57 for strikes, to battle through four innings. The three relievers combined to throw 60 pitches — 42 strikes — in the final five innings.
“It was an awesome bullpen job,” said Holliday. “Those guys come in and give us a chance. They have done that time and again. With what they have done it means anything can happen. It gives us a chance to get back into a game. That’s what gives you a chance to come-from-behind.”
And it is a chance the Rockies have been taken advantage of more often than not.