M any fans of the San Diego Padres that would argue the greatest moment in Colorado Rockies his tory really should not count Those Padres fans might be right When the 2007 regular sea son came to a close the Padres and the Rockies were tied with 89 73 records One of them would be going to the National League NL playoffs as a wild card team The other would be going home for the winter To determine which team would make the postseason they played a one-game playoff on October 1 in Denver Colorado That night in the bottom of the 13th inning the Rock ies Jamey Carroll hit a fly ball to right field After San Diego’s Brian Giles caught the ball Colorado’s Matt Holliday sprinted toward the plate and slid head first He was ruled Todd Helton watches his home run during the Rockies 9 8 13-inning win Todd Helton watches his home run during the Rockies 9 8 13-inning win over the Padres in a one-game NL West playoff on October 1 2007 over the Padres in a one-game NL West playoff on October 1 2007 ROCKTOBER 5
safe by the home-plate umpire The fans at Coors Field went crazy The Rockies went crazy For the first time in 12 seasons Colorado was headed to the playoffs Rocktober as it came to be known combining Rock ies and October was born The Rockies would carry that momentum all the way to the World Series In the days after that game Padres fans and some players argued that Holliday never did touch home plate on his slide Even videos of the play make it difficult to tell for sure whether he touched the plate Not that it mattered to the Rockies Holliday was ruled safe Nobody could ever take that away from him or Colo rado It was a close play But it worked out Yeah I was going to go for it Holliday said of the final play You’ve got to figure you just play the game at that point and let your instincts take over Holliday’s awkward slide left him with a bloody chin and some bruises But that moment became the one most fans remember from the thrilling 2007 season Before 2007 the Rock ies had six consecutive losing seasons For a while the 2007 campaign had the look of another disappointing season Late in the year the Rockies had improved But they still did not look like a playoff team They were 6 1 2 games out of first place in the NL West Divi sion with 13 games to play What happened from there will forever be remembered in Colorado sports history Includ ing their epic victory over the Padres in that one-game playoff the Rockies won 14 of their final 6 COLORADO ROCKIES
A banged-up Matt Holliday lies on the ground after scoring the winning run as Colorado teammates celebrate a 9 8 victory over San Diego for the 2007 NL West crown 15 games of the regular season to get into the postseason We never give up We always battle catcher Yor vit Torrealba said after the Rockies beat the Padres in the one-game playoff Colorado proved Torreal ba’s words several times during its season-ending hot streak Todd Helton hit a game-win ning two-run home run in the ninth inning against the visit ing Los Angeles Dodgers one night Three nights later Brad Hawpe connected for a 14th inning homer that proved to be the game-winner in a vic tory over the host Padres Hawpe had a two-run double in ROCKTOBER 7
