Rock Solid Recap: All That's Old Is New Again

Check the calendar. Make sure it doesn't read October 3rd, 2007.

On that day, the Rockies defeated the Philadelphia Philkes 4-2 in Game 1 of the NLDS. (boxscore)

The Winning Pitcher: Jeff Francis

The Save: Mamy Corpas

Today looked an awful lot like that day.

Rockies 2, Nationals 1

Winning Player: Jeff Francis

Jeff Francis didn't get the real win, but he did more than any Rockies fan, player, coach, or Francis himself could have imagined. He was flat brilliant. Actually, he was better than brilliant. He was on whatever level Ubaldo Jimenez has lived on all season. Yes, that's how good he was.

And he hadn't pitched in the big leagues since September 2008. Just think about that. Think about all the hard work he's put in and the anxiety he's fought through since then. That makes it all the more amazing.

Of course not all days will go as well as this one did, but we don't have to worry about that right now. We're just happy for Jeff and happy today resulted in a big Rockies W.

Save: Manny Corpas

Three 1-2-3 9th innings in about 26 hours. Is that any good?

And how about Matt Belisle? Is he not dealing?

About 3 months ago the Rockies were looking at Street, Betancourt and Morales handling their 7th, 8th and 9th innings. Right now it's Corpas, Belisle and Beimel. Bullpens are a crazy thing to predict, and that's why it's so rare for teams to invest a lot of money in their bullpen.

Thank You Washington

I don't say that to rub it in or anything like that. They're a solid baseball team, and I believe the Rockies playing them right now will actually make the Rockies a better baseball team.

For that, I thank them.

Seriously, when you look at how improved the Nats are this season, they make you elevate your game. Unlike years past, you have to BEAT them, not wait for them to beat themselves. If the Rockies had relaxed at all this weekend, the results would have been completely different.

Hopefully by playing Washington now the Rockies will realize what level of play they need to sustain if they want to stay in the hunt. Washington is better. San Diego is better. Cincinnati is legit. That makes for about 30 games that'll be more intense than you'd expect when you look at the schedule in March.

That's a lot off added intensity.

On The Road

That also makes road trips like this one all the more important.

The best approach here?

One game at a time.