The Big Rock Machine

The country at large is missing it, but the Colorado Rockies' run through the postseason is bordering on historic. Colorado holds a 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series.

The Diamondbacks' hopes are pinned on Micah Owings tonight, with their high hopes just one loss away a disastrous conclusion to a great season. For the Diamondbacks, it's as simple as this: Three games, four runs. The team that hit a National League-low .250 in the regular season is hitting a somewhat respectable .248 in the pressure of the NLCS, but when the Diamondbacks get on base, they're helpless.

The Rockies are hitting just .231, which is 49 points below their average. But they've scored 12 runs. They're getting three-run homers from anonymous players like Yorvit Torrealba.

And Arizona can only pin hopes on team from the past: the 2004 Boston Red Sox. They went down 3-0 in the American League Championship Series, then rattled off eight wins in a row to win the ALCS and the World Series. But they're the only team that rallied from a 3-0 deficit, and they weren't facing a team that had won 20 of its past 21 games.

And to think, without a clutch base hit by Milwaukee's Tony Gwynn Jr. on the next-to-last day of the season, the Rockies would be sitting at home, watching the Padres, or the Phillies, or the Cubs. Gwynn's ninth-inning hit tied the game against the Padres. A San Diego win on Sept. 29 would have eliminated the Rockies.

The Rockies' run is practically incomprehensible. A month ago today, the "Kid Rocks" were four games over .500, behind even the Dodgers and Braves in the National League wild-card standings. They're one of three teams -- at any point in the season -- to win 20 out of 21 games, joining the 2001 Oakland A's and 1977 Kansas City Royals.

And they're the first team to win their first six postseason games since the 1976 Cincinnati Reds. Just call them The Big Rock Machine, one win from their first World Series.

Photo: Yorvit Torrealba of the Colorado Rockies celebrates as he rounds the bases after hitting a three-run home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the sixth inning of Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at Coors Field on Oct. 14, 2007 in Denver. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)