by Dave Krieger Denver Post Columnist , The Denver Post

But Tracy might have cost the Rocks a game Thursday night by overmanaging, removing Jason Hammel with a 3-1 lead in the seventh and watching it devolve into a 5-4 loss.

The Rocks still have a 3 1/2-game lead over Atlanta in the wild-card race with nine to play (and a four-game lead over San Francisco and Florida), but this was ugly. Losing seven of 11, as they now have, is not the way to build a head of steam heading into the postseason.

In the role of the pursued for the first time in their 17 years, the Rocks are not playing their best Baseball.

It has been suggested that this club is better than its 2007 counterpart, in part because it is likely to win more games and in part because it doesn't need a miracle run at the end of the season to make the playoffs.

The flip side, assuming these Rockies hold on to the wild card, is that they seem certain to enter the postseason with considerably less wind at their back than the '07 team that swept the first two rounds to get to the World Series.

On the list of attributes a team wants going into the playoffs, I asked Tracy before Thursday's game, how important is being hot? It's "right up there towards the top of the list," he said. "Whose team is performing the best at the right time goes a long way in determining who wins."

By that standard, the Rocks need to start building momentum, like, now.

Tracy blamed the loss on an offense that scored three runs with its first four batters - Troy Tulowitzki's first-inning three-run homer - and then didn't score again until the eighth.

It's a fair complaint, but as the game entered the top of the seventh, Hammel was rolling along, in command, with a five-hitter. Padres left fielder Oscar Salazar opened with a single. Tulowitzki made a nifty backhanded stop of Nick Hundley's groundball and forced Salazar at second.

With one on and one out, Hammel had thrown 87 pitches. At that point, Tracy elected to pull him in favor of Franklin Morales. Tony Gwynn Jr. followed with a bloop hit. Then Morales issued consecutive walks to Henry Blanco and Everth Cabrera to force in a run. David Eckstein's sacrifice fly off Matt Daley tied the game. The Rocks never regained the lead.

"I don't question or second-

guess myself with that decision at all," Tracy said afterward.

"They had gotten a base hit, and Tulowitzki makes a hell of a play on the ball by (Hundley). And if you look at Tony

Gwynn's history versus left-

handed pitching, knowing that they're not going to remove him, he's their center fielder and they don't have another good choice there, that's the guy that you want to bring in."

It's easy to second-guess from the press box, but it looked as if Tracy overthought the situation. Even if you grant the advisability of bringing in a lefty to face the Padres' No. 8 hitter, two batters later the bases are loaded, Morales has demonstrated a lack of command by walking Blanco, and you have Cabrera at the plate.

Tracy said he left Morales in to deliver the walk that forced in the second Padres run because you want Cabrera, a switch-hitter, batting from the right side. Cabrera was hitting .245 right-

handed; .269 left-handed. Statistics can be useful, but they can also be overused. Tracy put more weight on the small difference in Cabrera's average than on Morales' lack of command.

In any case, this is what happens when teams tighten up. Tracy said he might have seen evidence of tightness when the Rocks were in Arizona but hasn't since the team returned. All it has to do is hit a little more, he said.

True enough, of course, but you also have to be able to win these low-scoring games, especially in the playoffs.

The good news is that Hammel cemented his spot in the postseason rotation, assuming the Rocks get there. The bad news is the Cardinals are in town tonight with Cy Young candidates Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright lined up to pitch, and the Braves seem to play all the rest of their games against the Nationals.

Time for the Rocks to right the ship, while they still have a cushion to play with.

Dave Krieger: 303-954-5297 or dkrieger@denverpost.com

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