Just under a month ago, the Rockies fired Clint Hurdle as their manager, and I advocated making a lot of trades to retool a team that was playing so poorly that the sum was clearly less than the individual parts. Well what a difference a month makes! Ever since firing Hurdle, the Rockies turned into the team I thought they were at the beginning of the season. Some of the major highlights:
- 19-5 under Jim Tracy, the best start by an in-season replacement manager in MLB history.
- Franchise record 9 game road winning streak going into tonight’s game versus the Angels.
- Already set a new franchise record for wins in the month of June with 7 games remaining in the month.
- Tied the longest winning streak in franchise history at 11 wins, matching the streak that got us into the playoffs in September 2007.
- Currently on a streak of 17 wins in 18 games, sweeping the Cardinals, Brewers, Mariners, and Pirates in the process and taking 2 of 3 from the defending American League Champion Tampa Bay Rays in the process.
- Rockies have moved from last place in the NL West, 14 games back, to 3rd place, 9 games back, and have moved from the 2nd worst record in the National League to being 0.5 games behind San Francisco and Milwaukee for the NL Wild Card.
- The Rockies went from the 2nd worst record in MLB at 18-28 to tied for the 4th most wins in the National League at 37-33.
I would have never thought that just making a managerial change would change this team this much. I thought there was more than enough talent on this team to be a contender, but for some reason it never materialized in the first two months. But boy are they on a run now.
It is great fun to be a Rockies fan right now! Go Rockies!
