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Rockies trying to become more than the kings of April

LOS ANGELES – The Colorado Rockies had won seven of their nine games, and what they knew for sure Friday afternoon – from here, from this moment – is there’d be batting practice soon and a ballgame soon after that followed by a bus ride back to the downtown hotel.

Anything beyond that was unknown, and possible, and very likely to be different than what they could dream up, here, in the still of the afternoon, on Day 12, sitting on a 7-2 record and first place in the NL West.

The Rockies have been here plenty in recent years, one reasonably competent April after another after another, only to have every single one of those Aprils shoveled into a pyre of injuries, flat sliders, short rosters, road misery and other injuries. For four Aprils before this one, they have won nearly 60 percent of their games. For the five remaining months, they’ve lost nearly 60 percent. So, from a 94-win pace to a 93-loss pace, again and again.

“Health?” Troy Tulowitzki said. “I’m not sure, standing here, I have an answer for you.”

The Rockies' Troy Tulowitzki, right, celebrates his home run with Wilin Rosario on Friday night. (Getty)
The Rockies' Troy Tulowitzki, right, celebrates his home run with Wilin Rosario on Friday night. (Getty)

It’s part of it, of course. Tulowitzki himself last year. And Carlos Gonzalez. Michael Cuddyer and Nolan Arenado, too. Tulowitzki and Gonzalez the year before that. But that’s not supposed to flat-line an organization by itself, not to a point where it wins but six road games after the middle of June, which is exactly what happened last summer.

But, you know, onward. Pitch better. Try to stay upright. Maybe put better players on the field so that the whole thing wasn’t wrapped around two guys. Keep showing up.

“I think that was frustrating to me,” Tulowitzki said. “You want to live up to your contract, and the injuries that come are devastating as an individual. I never argued with that. But, it should be a whole team thing. At times it has been an excuse for us. It shouldn’t have been. It shouldn’t ruin a season because a few players get hurt.”

Look at the San Francisco Giants, he said. They seem to manage.

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Now, this isn’t Tulowitzki griping about yesterday as much as it is Tulowitzki pleased with today. He is lean and healthy, was batting .343 coming into Friday night’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and in his first two at-bats against Clayton Kershaw singled sharply and homered into the left-field seats. He’d looked around a clubhouse that’s feeling OK about itself again. It has been a while since the Rockies had anything to look forward to but a fresh start, and here it is. Another one.

They were 6-0 on the road – yes, it had taken them three-and-a-half months for that many road wins once – before tangling with Kershaw. Granted, those six wins came against the Milwaukee Brewers and Giants, teams that seem to be, well, pacing themselves. Wins are wins, though, and hope is hope, and you can’t do anything about yesterday but try to pitch better today and then time up Kershaw’s fastball.

“I think that’s a little bit different around here now,” Tulowitzki said. “There’s more good players.”

Of them, there’s Arenado. He turned 24 on Thursday. The night before, he’d hit a three-run home run off Tim Lincecum and the Rockies beat the Giants 4-2. The night before that, he made that play that’s been running nonstop on your favorite highlights channel, the one where he ran from third base into foul territory, caught a pop-up with his back to the field when the ball seemed to drip straight from the brim of his cap, and then hit and skittered over the tarp and into the stands at AT&T Park. It was only brilliant already, and then, with a somewhat helpful shove from a lady in the first row, scrambled upright to make a throw to third base, too. The throw was late, but the effort and the instinct and the sellout were the sorts of things that make a name for the player and establish an expectation for the other 24. Make that, more of a name.

Nolan Arenado is one of the best young players in baseball. (Getty Images)
Nolan Arenado is one of the best young players in baseball. (Getty Images)

“I don’t really worry about stuff like that,” Arenado said Friday. “It’s very cool, people congratulating me. But we won the game. That’s what was cool.”

He’s in his third season and is a couple weeks closer to winning his third Gold Glove. He arrived against Kershaw batting .324, with five doubles and three home runs, and now he’s a good Rockies player not named Tulowitzki or Gonzalez. Like left fielder Corey Dickerson and second baseman D.J. LeMahieu and center fielder Charlie Blackmon. Nobody can be too sure about the pitching staff, but it has more than survived so far, particularly on the bullpen end. Yes, if the Rockies are to keep winning, they’ll probably have to hit their way toward it, which is the nature of who they are and where they play. But, at least there’s a way, which hasn’t always been as apparent. And, who knows, maybe this is the group – starters Jordan Lyles, Eddie Butler, Tyler Matzek, Christian Bergman and Kyle Kendrick – that makes some sense of Coors Field again.

“The biggest thing,” said catcher Nick Hundley, the free-agent pickup who’d spent 6 ½ seasons in the NL West, “is not giving up runs before you take the mound. The mindset is huge – the way you approach your craft, the way you approach your game. I think when we go and execute and battle it doesn’t matter the place you’re pitching in.”

The theme runs through all that the Rockies do and, eventually, who they are. The game is different where they come from. Perhaps the men have to be a little different, too.

So, they’d take 7-3 after Friday night’s loss to the Dodgers, and try to push it further into April, through spring, maybe into summer. They can’t take back the last few summers. They can’t have back the last few Aprils.

“It’s something that’s crazy to us, too,” Arenado said. “Just weird.”

Anything beyond that is, well, unknown. But possible.

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