2007 Colorado Rockies season

The Colorado Rockies' 2007 season started off with the team trying to improve on their 2006 record. They finished second in the National League West with a franchise record of 90 wins in 163 games and earned a playoff berth as the National League Wild Card team, in what was the Rockies' first postseason berth since 1995, and their first winning season since 2000. The team would go on to lose the World Series to the Boston Red Sox, four games to none.
The team's stretch run was among the greatest ever for a Major League Baseball team. Having a record of 76–72 at the start of play on September 16, the Rockies proceeded to win 14 of their final 15 regular season games to win the wild card. The stretch culminated with a 9–8, 13-inning victory over the San Diego Padres in a one-game playoff for the wild card berth, a game that is considered to be part of the regular season. The Rockies then swept their first seven playoff games to win the National League pennant — the franchise's first-ever pennant. Thus, at the start of the World Series, the Rockies had won a total of 21 out of 22 games. Fans and media nicknamed the Rockies' improbable run in October Rocktober.
The streak then ended, as the Rockies were swept in the World Series by the Boston Red Sox. The Rockies drew 2,376,250 fans for the season, their highest total since 2002. The average home attendance was 28,978.
As of today, this is the only season the Rockies have ever made the World Series.

Offseason

December 5, 2006: LaTroy Hawkins was signed as a free agent by the Colorado Rockies.
December 12, 2006: Jason Jennings was traded by the Colorado Rockies with Miguel Asencio to the Houston Astros for Willy Taveras, Taylor Buchholz and Jason Hirsh.
January 30, 2007: Choo Freeman was released by the Colorado Rockies.
February 18, 2007: Matt Herges was signed as a free agent by the Colorado Rockies.
February 24, 2007: Steve Finley was signed as a free agent by the Colorado Rockies.

Regular season

Wild card tie-breaker

The Rockies ended the 162-game regular season with 89 wins and 73 losses. They were tied with the San Diego Padres for second place in the NL West and first in the NL Wild Card. A tie-breaker game was played on October 1, 2007, at Coors Field in Denver to determine which team would continue on to post-season play. The game lasted 13 innings, spanning four hours and 40 minutes. The Rockies won the game with a controversial play at home plate where Matt Holliday appeared to not touch home plate but was called safe resulting in a final score of 9–8, sending them to only their second post-season in franchise history. The tie-breaker game counts toward all team and player statistics in the regular season; so, the Rockies' official 2007 win–loss record stands at 90-73.

Transactions

May 13, 2007: Byung-hyun Kim was traded by the Colorado Rockies to the Florida Marlins for Jorge Julio.
June 13, 2007: Steve Finley was released by the Colorado Rockies.
August 15, 2007: Ramón Ortiz was traded by the Minnesota Twins to the Colorado Rockies for Matt Macri.
August 19, 2007: Mark Redman was signed as a free agent by the Colorado Rockies.

Major League debuts

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Yorvit Torrealba	113	396	101	.255	8	47
1B	Todd Helton	154	557	178	.320	17	91
2B	Kazuo Matsui	104	410	118	.288	4	37
SS	Troy Tulowitzki	155	609	177	.291	24	99
3B	Garrett Atkins	157	605	182	.301	25	111
LF	Matt Holliday	158	636	216	.340	36	137
CF	Willy Taveras	97	372	119	.320	2	24
RF	Brad Hawpe	152	516	150	.291	29	116

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
	97	264	79	.299	11	51
	108	227	51	.225	2	22
	67	197	43	.218	4	27
	85	144	32	.222	4	12
	72	140	40	.286	2	14
	43	94	17	.181	1	2
Omar Quintanilla	27	70	16	.229	0	5
Ian Stewart	35	43	9	.209	1	9
Clint Barmes	27	37	8	.216	0	1
John Mabry	28	34	4	.118	1	5
Gerónimo Gil	5	14	1	.071	0	0
Joe Koshansky	17	12	1	.083	0	2
Seth Smith	7	8	5	.625	0	0
Sean Barker	3	2	0	.000	0	0
Edwin Bellorín	3	2	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	34	215.1	17	9	4.22	165
	25	166.0	8	7	4.12	61
	30	165.2	10	9	4.94	94
	19	112.1	5	7	4.81	75
	15	82.0	4	4	4.28	68
	14	79.1	5	4	4.42	43
Franklin Morales	8	39.1	3	2	3.43	26
Elmer Dessens	5	19.0	1	1	7.58	10
Tim Harikkala	1	3.1	0	0	8.10	2

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	41	93.2	6	5	4.23	61
Mark Redman	5	19.2	2	0	3.20	14
Byung-Hyun Kim	3	6.0	1	2	10.50	2

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
	64	3	5	20	3.08	56
	78	4	2	19	2.08	58
	75	4	3	0	3.51	46
	62	2	5	0	3.42	29
	58	0	3	0	3.93	50
Matt Herges	35	5	1	0	2.96	30
Tom Martin	26	0	0	0	4.91	10
Ramón Ramírez	22	2	2	0	8.31	15
Ryan Speier	20	3	1	0	4.00	13
Zach McClellan	12	1	0	0	5.79	13
Ramón Ortiz	10	1	0	0	7.62	7
Denny Bautista	9	2	1	0	12.46	8
Alberto Árias	6	1	0	0	4.91	3
Bobby Keppel	4	0	0	0	11.25	1
Juan Morillo	4	0	0	0	9.82	3
Dan Serafini	3	0	0	0	54.00	0
Josh Newman	2	0	0	0	4.50	3
Darren Clarke	2	0	0	0	0.00	1

Playoffs

National League Division Series: vs. [Philadelphia Phillies]

Colorado started the series with the Philadelphia Phillies on October 3, 2007, at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies had a potent offense with NL MVP candidates Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley. The Rockies swept the series in three games with scores of 4-2 in Game 1 and 10-5 in Game 2 in Philadelphia. In Game 3, with the score tied in the bottom of the 8th and two outs, Jeff Baker singled to bring in the go-ahead run. Manny Corpas then pitched a perfect ninth inning to seal the Rockies' first postseason series victory.

National League Championship Series: vs. [Arizona Diamondbacks]

Colorado started the series with the Arizona Diamondbacks on October 11, 2007, at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks came into the game having swept the Chicago Cubs in the NLDS in three games. Colorado took the first two games, including a 3-2 extra-inning victory in Game 2.
On Sunday, October 14, the Rockies would play in a cold, wet Coors Field in Denver. There, they would find a way to hit the ball over the wall even in the harsh weather. The Rockies hit two homers that night, one in the 1st inning from Matt Holliday and the other in the 6th inning from Yorvit Torrealba. Colorado won the game 4-1. This win gave the Rockies a 20-1 record over their last 21 games. This made them only the third team in the last half-century, and the first in the National League since the 1936, to have a 20-1 stretch at any point of a season.
Colorado won its first NL pennant on Monday, October 15, at home, with the deciding blow, a three-run HR by Matt Holliday, to sweep Arizona in the midst of a historic 21-1 sprint with only one loss since September 15.
Matt Holliday was the 2007 NLCS MVP Award winner. The Rockies became the first team to win their first seven playoff games in 31 years. It should also be noted that they also became the first team to do it since MLB added the division series to the playoffs. The 2014 Kansas City Royals passed the record bywinning their first eight playoff games in the wild card game, the ALDS, and the ALCS.

World Series vs. [Boston Red Sox]

The Rockies lost the first two games at Fenway Park, by a score of 13-1 in Game 1 and 2-1 in Game 2. The 13 runs are the most ever scored by a team in the first game of a World Series. Returning to Coors Field for the final two games, the Rockies lost Game 3 by a score of 10-5 and Game 4 by a score of 4-3.