Helton and Rockies feeling less pressure
Considering he'd anticipated this day for a decade or more, there were two things that threw Todd Helton about the first playoff game of his career.
"For his first playoff hit to be a triple, no one probably would have guessed that," said teammate Troy Tulowitzki.
CHARLES FOX / Inquirer Staff Writer
The Phillies' Aaron Rowand chases after a second-inning triple by Todd Helton. The Rockies veteran and teammates said the stretch drive prepared them well for the postseason.
OK, three things.
Contact Rocky Mountain News columnist Dave Krieger at kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.
"Oh, I always think triple out of the box," Helton deadpanned.
"No, there's usually got to be a train wreck or something out there for me to get a triple."
Philly's four-year-old Citizens Bank Park is a beautiful ball yard with those weird angles along the outfield wall that are all the rage in modern ballpark design.
Helton's long drive to center field on Cole Hamels' first pitch of the second inning caromed off one of them and rolled away from Phillies centerfielder Aaron Rowand, allowing Helton to register just his third triple of the year and score the Rocks' first run of the postseason.
"I mean, speed kills," Matt Holliday explained.
"I put myself in a hole," Helton said. "My legs were jelly the rest of the game after running like that."
But, no, that wasn't one of the things that caught him off guard. The first was the stuff in the air. Like confetti, only smaller.
"It took me like three innings to figure out what it was," Helton said. "I didn't know if they were bugs or what, but it was all the lint from the towels. I thought it was pretty cool."
The Phils gave fans white towels to wave during the game.
Then there was the other thing, the marvelous, totally unexpected thing. When the playoffs finally came, they were a relief. After the Rocks' final stretch of the regular season, when they had to win 14 of 15 just to make the postseason, the playoffs actually represented less pressure.
"I don't know, I felt totally different," Helton said. "I felt relaxed and confident. I mean, the last two weeks, we lose the game, the season's over. Today it wasn't like that."
Difficult as it was, the Rocks' final surge was the best possible preparation for the postseason. They may be the first team in history to reach the playoffs for the first time in 12 years and find them relaxing.
"We've been playing games where if you lose, you're pretty much done," Tulowitzki said. "If we were to drop a game today, we still come back tomorrow and play, and we know that. But by no means do we want to lose."
Tulo represents the other end of baseball's risk/reward spectrum, reaching the playoffs in his first major-league season. He appreciates the contrast.
"It goes to show it's obviously not easy to get here," he said of Helton's long wait. "I definitely will value being here because you never know if you're going to make it again.
"I was a big fan of Dan Marino, and I think he made it to the Super Bowl in his first year or second year, and I remember him saying one time he thought it was easy. That's something I always will remember as long as I play this game, that anytime you get to the postseason, it's special. I'm definitely not going to think it's easy because I know it's not."
Rodney Helton made the trip from Tennessee to see his kid brother achieve his career-long dream.
"I'm obviously real proud of him, and I'm just glad that he's here," Todd's older brother said.
For those wondering how the two most powerful offensive teams in the National League could score only six runs between them, the Rocks first baseman had a simple explanation - the made-for-TV starting time.
"The shadows were really bad today," he said. "It affected everybody. I mean, there's no doubt about it. You could see from the swings that some guys were taking that you couldn't see the baseball that well."
In the bottom of the eighth, reliever Brian Fuentes walked Phillies pinch-hitter Tadahito Iguchi, then went to a 3-1 count on shortstop Jimmy Rollins. Helton walked halfway from first to the mound to shout something to Fuentes.
"He couldn't hear me anyways, with the crowd," Helton said. "I was just going to slow him down a little bit. 'You're all right,' that's all I was going to say."
Fuentes said that by the time he saw Helton, he was walking back toward first. Call it karma. Rollins popped the next pitch to Tulowitzki. Five outs later, the Rocks took a one-game-to-none lead in the best-of-five series.
There were shadows and lint and a shocking three-bagger. There was a playoff game with less pressure than the 15 regular-season games that preceded it. Put it together and Helton's long-awaited playoff debut produced another surprise: He felt as if he was right where he belonged.
Contact Rocky Mountain News columnist Dave Krieger at kriegerd@RockyMountainNews.
com.
