Colorado Rockies Rocktober Dreams Begin in Milwaukee
It’s here, Colorado Rockies fans, that thing we’ve been talking about for almost a month. Rocktober is here as the Rockies open the NLDS against the Milwaukee Brewers.
After the 163 game grind and an amazing National League Wild Card game in Chicago, the Colorado Rockies officially, literally begin Rocktober on Thursday at 3:07PM in Milwaukee.
The beauty of Colorado’s run is that no matter what happens now, this season has been a success.
Mostly.
Getting to the NLCS and beating the Los Angeles Dodgers would complete perhaps the most feel-good season in Colorado Rockies history.
Back in June, when Nolan Arenado fired a shot over Colorado management’s bow about wanting to play in meaningful (postseason) games, this is precisely what he was talking about. You only needed to see his postgame interview in Chicago to understand what this means to the Rockies star.
I’ve been hard on Arenado. When you make proclamations about your desire for team success and then go into an extended offensive slump, you invite a bit of criticism. On Wednesday, though, I took an online poll and one question asked me to identify my favorite Rockies player. The choices were Arenado, Trevor Story, Charlie Blackmon and Kyle Freeland. I stared at the question for 20 minutes, unsure how to choose between that foursome (to be fair, you could add a ton more names to that list and it’d be equally confounding) but in the end, chose Arenado. Nolan is our star, our MVP guy, our golden glove and silver slugger candidate each year.
He is the best of the Rockies and after all is said and done belongs on their Rushmore with Larry Walker, Todd Helton and Carlos Gonzalez. This is Nolan’s playoffs, his play at third and his offensive prowess are responsible as much as anything save Trevor Story for the Rockies success.
Colorado manager Bud Black has chosen Antonio Senzatela for Thursday’s Game 1 while the Brewers will use a compilation of relievers, similar to what Colorado did against the Nationals in the penultimate game of the regular season.
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In five starts in the month of September, Senzatela gave up just 10 runs and 29 hits. While his season has been unsteady, he’s been solid at the end of the season. Colorado fans can have some semblance of confidence in Antonio, he has been good since returning from the 10-day DL in August.
More to come, go Rockies!