Matt Holliday, Brad Hawpe and Garret Atkins led the way back in 2007 when the Colorado Rockies made an 
improbable late-season run to the playoffs and coined the phrase “Rocktober.”
Three years later, all three of those players are out of the Rockies organization but the Rockies are once again looking to make a late season push into the playoffs.
On September 1st, the Rockies sat seven games out of first place in the NL West (they were only six games out on the same date in 2007) but now find themselves just a game and a half out with 13 left to play.
A rookie who brought a boost of energy to the Rockies back in 2007, Troy Tulowitski is now leading the Rockies latest playoff charge that brings back memories of Matt Holliday’s slide to beat the Padres in a one game playoff.
On the month of September, Tulo is hitting .325 and slugging an incredible .590. His 14 homeruns this month are more than he had the rest of the season (he now stands at 26 on the year) and he hit them all within a span of 15 games.
The NL record for homeruns in September is 16, set by Ralph Kiner back in 1949. The overall September record is 17, set by both Albert Belle and Babe Ruth. Sammy Sosa has the most homeruns of in any month, as he hit 20 back in June of 1998. Tulowitski has a chance to make history if he can continue his power surge, but that’s not what he’s focused on at this point.
Although the Rockies might not finish the season by winning 14 of their last 15 games like they did in 2007, a run to the playoffs would mark a remarkable comeback for a team that was over 10 games back less than a month ago.
With a red hot Troy Tulowitski and Triple Crown contender Carlos Gonzalez leading the way, there’s reason to believe that we could be in for another long Rocktober.
Used with permission of the author.
Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.
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