page_title: History of the Colorado Rockies
section_title: 2009: The Jim Tracy era and a return to the playoffs
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Colorado Rockies / Generation-R / 2009: The Jim Tracy era and a return to the playoffs
caption_attribution_description: Jason Marquis
context_page_description: The History of the Colorado Rockies began in 1991 when a Major League Baseball expansion franchise for Denver, Colorado was granted to an ownership group headed by John Antonucci. In 1993, the Colorado Rockies started play in the National League West division. Since that date, the Rockies have reached the MLB postseason four times, each time as the National League wild card team. Twice they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. In 2007, the Rockies advanced all the way to the World Series, only to be swept by the Boston Red Sox.
context_section_description: After a poor start (19–28) to the 2009 season, Clint Hurdle was fired on May 29. His successor as manager was Jim Tracy, who was originally hired as bench coach for the Colorado Rockies in November 2008. In June 2009, the team rapidly improved and by the end of June, the Rockies set a franchise record for victories in a month with 21 in a 28-game stretch (one win better than the September 2007 Rocktober run).  This improved their record from 20–29 and nine games under .500, to 41–36 and 5 games over .500.  During June, the Rockies led all of major league baseball with 151 total runs.  The Rockies had two players selected to the All-Star Game: right fielder Brad Hawpe and starting pitcher Jason Marquis. On August 10, Troy Tulowitzki hit the team's 5th franchise cycle.  He became the second player in major league history to hit for the cycle and have an unassisted triple play, which he did on April 29, 2007, in his career.
  On August 24, the Rockies faced the San Francisco Giants in what ended up being a 14 inning game which lasted close to 5 hours(4:57), the second longest game in Rockies history. After multiple scoreless innings, the Giants managed to score three runs in the top of the 14th to place them ahead of the Rockies, 4–1. After several Colorado at-bats, the bases were loaded and Ryan Spilborghs stepped up to the plate. Spilborghs hit the first walk-off grand slam in Rockies history, his second career grand slam, and his first walk-off homer in the 14th inning to squeak by the Giants, 6–4, Monday in front of about half of the 27,670 fans who remained at Coors Field.  The play has since been dubbed "SpillySlam".
  This particular win expanded the Rockies' Wild Card lead to four games over Giants. In an ecstatic interview after the game, Jim Tracy stated that he told the Rockies' preceding batter, relief pitcher Adam Eaton, not to swing: "Even if Miller threw three balls down the Middle, take the strikeout because I wanted Spilly to get a chance to hit."  The strategy worked in the Rockies' favor; Eaton walked with the bases loaded, scoring Dexter Fowler to cut the Giants' lead to 4–2.
  Following the win, Colorado hosted Los Angeles with a chance to pull into a tie for the division lead if they could sweep.  On August 25, the Rockies won 5–4 on another walk-off thanks to Troy Tulowitzki's bases loaded, one out single in the bottom of the 10th. However, Los Angeles, won the next two games, and with their wild card lead down to 3 games, the Rockies traveled to San Francisco for another 3-game set.  After losing each of the first two games by two runs, the Rockies opened up a 5–2 lead against Matt Cain in the finale of the series on August 30.  But with two outs and the bases loaded in the 7th, in a scene eerily similar to the Ryan Spilborghs walk-off, Édgar Rentería hit a go-ahead grand slam off of Rafael Betancourt, propelling the Giants to a 9–5 win and a tie in the Wild Card standings entering September.
  Colorado responded by winning 10 of their first 11 games in September, including a 9–1 home stand.  When they returned to San Francisco for their final series with the Giants on September 14, the Rockies had once again built a large Wild Card lead.  But as in the previous series, San Francisco won the first two games behind Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito, cutting the Rockies wild card lead to 2.5 games.  In a pivotal swing game that could have had the Rockies leave San Francisco with either a 1.5 game lead or a 3.5 game lead, Colorado once again built a large lead against Matt Cain in the finale of the series on September 16.  Thanks to 8 brilliant innings from Jorge de la Rosa, and home runs from Troy Tulowitzki and Ian Stewart, the Rockies took a 4–0 lead into the bottom of the 9th.  With closer Huston Street injured, the Rockies turned to Franklin Morales, but the Giants started the inning with 3 straight hits to pull to within 4–1. Rafael Betancourt was summoned once again, and induced a ground ball off Juan Uribe's bat.  However, an errant throw by Tulowitzki sailed past Clint Barmes and into right field, scoring an
caption: Jason Marquis
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