The Rox rock

A couple of weeks ago a friend and I went on vacation to Denver and went to a game at Coors Field. The events of that night should have told me something, but it took until the last couple of days to sink in.

The Colorado Rockies are (gulp) in the thick of a playoff race in August.

The night I was at Coors, the Rockies lost 5-4 to the L.A. Dodgers and Brad Penny, who has owned the Rockies in his career. Penny cruised through the first five innings of that game having allowed one hit and no runs. L.A. took a 4-0 lead into the sixth when, all of a sudden, a hit here and a walk there and a less-than-full Coors Field sounded like LSU's Tiger Stadium in the fourth quarter of a game against Alabama.

The point is the Rockies have made believers out of a market that, most years, is worried about which Bronco is going to get nicked up in camp. Colorado has, once again, turned Coors Field into a place no one wants to visit, having won nine straight home series after a sweep of Milwaukee.

If this young team can find a way to win on the road down the stretch, we may see Mile High baseball in October for the first time since 1995.