Optimism.... Returning..... Must Resist....

It is foolish, really, to get too excited about a little four-game winning streak, particularly when two of those wins were against the worst team in the entire major leagues. And when one recalls that this modest little streak was preceded by an eight-game losing streak that included some of the least inspired baseball the Rockies have displayed in quite some time, it really puts this into the proper perspective. It's just a four-game streak, the pitching is still in disarray and the bats remain far too streaky to convince me that this, finally, is the win streak that will get the Rockies back on track.

Yet, there is excitement among the purple-clad patrons, and for a good reason. Not because the Rockies had their largest-ever comeback victory last night, in one of the most thrilling and implausible games you'll ever see. Not because the home runs were flying out of the park last night, with Holliday knocking a grand slam to pull the Rockies back to within one run in the late innings, and Spilborghs and Ianetta each hitting Galarraga-esque shots completely over the pavilion in left field and onto the concourse.

The excitement is that the Rockies are suddenly playing a lot like they did last year, when the scoreboard didn't phase them and there was no game they could not win. Last year, when instead of our pitching letting down when the hits came, the hits came when the pitching needed them. Last year, when they knew that if one guy failed, the next guy would get the job done. Last year, that confidence drove them all the way to the Series in one of the most thrilling and implausible runs baseball has ever seen.

That confidence was beat out of them in the Series, and has not really reappeared this year, until these last four games. And the team is feeding off that confidence. Their dugout is full of open faces rather than slumped shoulders, high fives rather than pats on the back. It's only four games, of course, but these four games have had a different, yet familiar look to them. Haven't they?