A game-by-game look at the Rockies’ streak

What the Rockies have done, winning 21 of 22 games to get to the World Series, is incredible. Here’s a game-by-game look at how the Rockies got here, starting with the day before the streak started.

THE DAY BEFORE: Marlins 10, Rockies 2 (September 15).

This was the Rockies’ third loss in a row, which is incredible seeing what they’ve done since then. The Rockies got killed, their offense couldn’t score and Ubaldo Jimenez couldn’t go past the third inning.

Standings after 9/15: 4.5 games back in Wild Card, behind three teams (SD, Phi, LAD). Fourth place in the division.

WIN #1: Rockies 13, Marlins 0

The Rockies just dominated, but who knew then they wouldn’t lose again for almost two weeks? Matt Holliday led with four hits.

Standings after 9/16: Still 4.5 back in WC, still behind three teams.

WINS 2 & 3: Rockies 3, Dodgers 1; Rockies 9, Dodgers 8 (doubleheader on Sept. 18).

This is where it started to get interesting. After winning a Jeff Francis-led pitching duel in Game 1, the Rockies found themselves down to their last out in Game 2, needing Todd Helton to hit a walk-off homer off of closer Takashi Saito to give the Rockies the doubleheader sweep.

Standings after 9/18: Still 4.5 games behind SD in the WC, also still behind Philly but tied with the Dodgers.

The first printed rumors about Dorrell’s future

For several hours, The Sporting News had an article up that said:

 

Change is brewin’ for Bruins The next few games are critical to Karl Dorrell’s future at UCLA.

A source told me that UCLA AD Dan Guerrero met with Bruin defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker last week during the team’s off week to discuss the possibility of Walker taking over as interim coach this season if Dorrell is let go early.

Presumably, if Walker does well, he would be given strong consideration to become the head coach. Walker’s defense has been strong since he arrived in Westwood before the 2006 season. He long has been considered a strong head coaching candidate, with his extensive background in the NFL. The guy is good.

That part of the article has since been removed (I read it myself earlier in the day, and it was gone later — Bruins Nation wisely saved the text).

UCLA sports information came out and said the story was untrue, and Tom Dienhart, the reporter for the Sporting News, took the blurb out of his story (he admitted this in the comments section of the story).

This raises the following questions for me:

1) Was Dienhart’s source wrong? If so, Dienhart should say so in the story (not just the comments).

2) Does Dienhart still believe in his source? If so, he should stand by his story and say his source is credible.

He should be doing one or the other — he shouldn’t just make the UCLA part of his article disappear, and only acknowledge it in the comments section, which not everyone reads.

Still, this is the first rumor to appear in a legitimate publication about Dorrell possibly being fired. The possibility of it happening is more out there now to major media (it’s not just the UCLA and college football blogs who think Karl Dorrell should and could be fired anymore).

Hopefully this makes people take a closer look at the Dorrell era, and the mediocrity it reeks of.

Hat-tip to Bruins Nation for being on top of this.