At this time a year ago there was no hint that the Colorado Rockies were about to embark on one of the most awesome year-end streaks in history.
The Rockies had languished in fourth or fifth place in the National League West for most of the 2007 season, but beginning Sept. 16:
- They won 11 games in a row and 13 of the last 14 games on their schedule.
- They edged San Diego in a one-game playoff for the N.L. wild card.
- They went seven for seven in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
- All of that added to 21 victories in 22 games and a World Series reservation.
Dan O’Dowd, the Rockies general manager, was among many who didn’t see that stretch coming. Now, having experienced it, he cautioned not to expect a Rockies reprise.
“If we do that we’re going to have to play a lot better than we have all year,” O’Dowd said. “We haven’t played good baseball all year. Our longest winning streak has been five games.”
The Rockies were not the only team that had an eventful September last year. In the N.L. East the Mets collapsed and Philadelphia passed them in the final 17 games. In the American League the Seattle Mariners faltered and the Yankees caught them and won the wild card. Cleveland had a strong September and Detroit didn’t so the Indians won the A.L. Central.
For the high and the low, though, it was the Rockies and the Mets.
“I felt for most of the year we underachieved,” O’Dowd said. “I felt that way again this year. If we had played up to our ability last year, we would not have needed that kind of streak.”
Could that type of streak be possible this month? The Rockies, after all, have been only five games from first in recent days, but they might have been raising false hope.
“I hold out hope, but a lot will have to happen for us to do it again,” O’Dowd said. “I see no indication that our club is going to get on that kind of roll. We just haven’t played a good fundamental brand of baseball. It doesn’t seem like we’re operating on all cylinders this year. We haven’t played well enough to do that again.”
The Mets don’t want to collapse again, as they did last September. The 2007 Mets were in first place for more than four months of a six-month season, from May 16 until Sept. 27. After games of Sept. 12, they had a seven-game lead over the Phillies, their largest of the season. They were only 17 games from the division title
But they lost 12 of those 17 games, and the Phillies won 13 of their last 17. The Phillies won the division title by a game. It was the kind of collapse teams tend to remember.
Asked if he had seen signs of impending doom, Omar Minaya, the Mets general manager, said, “No, not at all. There were no signs of a total meltdown, which is what we had last year.”
Minaya said that even with their seven-game lead he never declared the Mets the division winner. “I never said we were in,” he said. “When we started losing games, we had just come from beating Atlanta and got 21 games over .500. Internally I didn’t say it, but I thought we had a chance to win. I’m never comfortable, though, until it’s over.”
Which means Minaya hasn’t been comfortable at any time this season. In fact, he was very uncomfortable when he decided he had to change managers, firing Willie Randolph June 16 and replacing him with the bench coach, Jerry Manuel.
Just as he had been unable to stop the profuse bleeding last September, Randolph had not been able to get the Mets playing in a manner that would have given them a legitimate chance to finish first this year.
Under Randolph, the Mets had a 34-35 record and were tied for third place, six and a half games out of first. With Manuel as manager, the team, entering the weekend series with Philadelphia, had a 45-26 and were in first place, three games ahead of the Phillies.
That three-game lead was the Mets’ biggest of the season.
“This year with our bullpen I’m never going to assume anything,” Minaya said, then added, “I think it’s going to be about runs for us. We’re going to have to add the added- on runs, like yesterday. It was 6-2, then we went to 8-2. Those runs were huge.”
But in the first game of the series with the Phillies, the Mets didn’t score any runs, lost 3-0 and had their lead whittled to two games.
If the Yankees had played as well late in this season as they did a year ago, they might not be running out of breath. Last year they were two and a half games behind the Mariners in the wild-card standings Aug. 21, but they won 21 of their next 32 games and clinched the wild card Sept. 26.
The Mariners won only 13 of 35 games in that period and limped into the off-season. They are limping even worse this season, but then the Yankees don’t have anything to boast about.
Last season’s heroics did nothing for the Indians this season either. They clinched the A.L. Central championship last season by winning 27 of 36 games between Aug. 14 and Sept. 23 while Detroit won 19 of 37.
Dodgers Do Diamondbacks
The Diamondbacks’ shovels were poised for the burial. The Dodgers had lost a season-high eight in a row, had tumbled four and a half games behind the Diamondbacks and for the final two games of the series at Arizona’s home park had to face Dan Haren and Brandon Webb, who between them had a 33-11 record.
N.L. West race over, right? Wrong. The Dodgers beat Haren and Webb and less than a week later supplanted the Diamondbacks in first place, again after beating Haren and Webb in consecutive games.
Until that Dodgers’ victory Saturday the Diamondbacks had been in first place for 153 days of the 159 days of the season. They had been tied on 10 of those days, but they were never bumped from the division lead. Now suddenly the Dodgers had burst to life and had leapfrogged into first.
That Manny Ramirez slugged a three-run home run against Webb and drove in five runs altogether in the 7-2 place-changing victory should not have come as a surprise. When the Dodgers obtained Ramirez from the Red Sox July 31, it was highly likely that he would play a significant role in the N.L. West race.
Significant? Are these statistics significant? In his first 34 games with the Dodgers, Ramirez batted .403, whacked 11 home runs and drove in 34 runs. He had a .500 on- base percentage and a .748 slugging percentage.
With 18 victories and 16 losses since the trade, the Dodgers haven’t played like World Series champions, but they have played well enough to make a race of it.
Actually, the Diamondbacks have contributed more to the division race than the Dodgers. They had a six-game lead before the end of April and could have been so far ahead that the Dodgers would not have had reason to pursue Ramirez. But in a five-week stretch from mid-May to mid-June the Diamondbacks won 11 games and lost 21, matching in reverse the record they had in the first 32 games of the season.
“They should have had it locked up,” Dan O’Dowd, the Rockies general manager, said. “They had a chance to bury the Dodgers last weekend and didn’t.”
Mussina Marches On
Five times Mussina has exceeded 17 victories, twice winning 19, but No. 20 has always eluded him. In 1995 he gained his 19th victory on the last day of the season. The next year he won his 19th Sept. 7 and started four more games. He lost the first two and emerged from the last two without a decision.
I have been critical of Mussina for his failure to establish his dominance by winning 20, winning the Cy Young award and/or pitching his team to a World Series championship. But my criticism has evoked so much e-mail comment that I have to believe no player has as much support among fans as Mussina does, although they often go through mental gymnastics to justify their views.
A sampling:
From Marty: Keep in mind that he has pitched his entire career in the AL and has had to deal with the DH and significantly smaller ballparks over the past 15 years than pitchers from the 1950s thru 1973. In addition, he has pitched during the “steroid” era, a time we now know inflated every batting statistic for close to a decade.
From Mike: Let’s also realize that he’s pitched during one of the great offensive periods in the game, pitched only in the AL and the AL East at that, and only against lineups with DHs. Last, he’s pitched during a time of increased use of relief pitchers, effectively reducing his opportunities to win games.
From Nicholas: You ignored adjusted ERA which is more important than a lot of people know. Kaat’s career ERA may be lower than Mussina’s but when adjusted for league averages, Mussina trumps him 122-107. The same is true for Blyleven and John.
Manny and the Ramirez Gang
Manny Ramirez is certainly the best known Ramirez in the major leagues, but he is only one of many. The Ramirezes have proliferated. Eight other Ramirezes have played in the majors this season, two on the same team in two different instances.
Aramis is the Cubs’ third baseman and Alexei, a Cuban defector, the White Sox second baseman. Hanley is the Marlins’ shortstop. If they could find themselves a first baseman named Ramirez, they would have a pretty strong infield.
Max is a catcher, and he played in 13 games for the Rangers in June and July.
The other Ramirezes are pitchers. Edwar relieves for the Yankees, Ramon relieves for the Reds and another Ramon does the same thing for the Royals. Horacio was a starter for five years, mostly with Atlanta, but now is a reliever with the Royals, where he sits in the bullpen with Ramon. Before he was traded to the Royals last month, Horacio pitched for the White Sox, where he was a teammate of Alexei.
Then there is Manny, the manchild outfielder, who has been hitting around .400 with the Dodgers since they acquired him July 31and has reached the 100-r.b.i. plateau for the 12th time in the last 14 years.