Manager Bud Black knows that a steady approach wins the race over a long season.
ARIZ.» Nothing much PEORIA, was at stake here Tuesday night in the Mariners’ spring stadium off the Agua Fria Freeway, except perhaps the drive-thru line at InN-Out Burger next door. But Bud Black managed the Rockies like they were playing Game 7 of the World Series.
He did not implore them to win one for a Gipper or embrace great moments from great opportunities. It was the 12th game of the Cactus League with 23 days until opening day. And nobody wants a blowhard screaming at them now with more than seven months still to play.
And yet the Rockies’ entire season was laid out before them in one March game.
“One of my messages is to treat a spring training game, a game in April, July, October, it’s the same game,” Black said. “You talk to players who’ve played in big games, across the board, all sports, talk to psychologists, coaches, people who’ve done this for a long time, they’ll say you can’t just turn it up when you want. That’s not how it should be done.
“There should be a high level of intensity every game you play. And then the bigger game becomes just another game that you play.”
In their 25-year history, the Rockies have never gone to the playoffs in successive seasons. But there are reasons to believe it could happen this year: A young and healthy starting pitching staff was tested under fire last year and survived; their general manager crafted one of the deepest bullpens in the league this winter; and two MVP candidates will hit in the middle of their order.
The postseason is not a pipe dream, so Black is prepping them as such. In the case of the Rockies, who fielded the youngest pitching rotation in the majors last season, Black is trying to teach them that World Series are won in the pattern and drill of every day, not by ramping up all of a sudden in September.
“You can’t ride that roller coaster,” Black said. “It’s natural to wonder, ‘Is this the most important game of the year?’ At the end of it all, you can look back and say, ‘Hey, that was a critical game or a series.’ But you can’t do that every single game.”
The Rockies nearly learned this in a disastrous way. A once first-place team faded in the dog days, losing 11 of 15 games in August. A collapse seemed imminent. Seven-plus years had passed since the Rockies last tasted the postseason, and their naiveté was showing.
So Black called a series of lateseason clubhouse meetings. He determined his team was trying too hard.
“We found guys pressing, making too much of certain moments and not performing to their capabilities,” Black said. “So we had a couple meetings internally and we told the players: ‘This is the same game we played in April and May. Let’s get back to doing what we do. Relax and enjoy it.’
“They understood it. Just because of the heightened moment, you can’t try any harder. You do what you’re capable of doing.”
Suddenly, the Rockies started rolling, winning eight of nine games in September, including a four-game sweep of the Dodgers in Los Angeles that propelled them into a wild-card game.
The lessons only got more difficult. Jon Gray, in his first postseason appearance, pitched through just four outs, leaving in the second inning with four runs against him.
“I got outside myself,” he said. “It stinks when it happens that fast. A lot of regrets. It’s tough emotionally.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had prepped his team in similar fashion. But his team was familiar with the postseason. They have won the NL West five years running. Clayton Kershaw has pitched in 23 more playoff games than Gray. He knows what to expect.
But Roberts treats Kershaw in similar fashion to the way Black will prep Gray and the Rockies.
“Every game is important,” Roberts said. “It manifests in preparation — your ability to focus for long periods of time, in certain moments, in every moment. In the postseason, things have a tendency to speed up, and emotions get involved. If you play with a certain mentality all year that kind of translates more to the postseason instead of trying to play harder or better in the postseason.”
Consistency is key. Black learned his lesson working with Mike Scioscia, Joe Maddon and Ron Roenicke in Anaheim. Black was the Angels’ pitching coach then. They came up with a theory: Every game should be played at one, high-pitched level, no matter the date.
As a pitcher with the Royals in 1985, Black saw how George Brett, Frank White, Willie Wilson and Hal McRae had battled the New York Yankees in the playoffs year after year. By 1985, they were playing through the dog days with a casual confidence that was learned under fire.
Now it is Black’s charge to pass that idea to a Rockies team still trying to find its way as an annual threat.
“That’s how you truly become conditioned to playing the game properly, the right way,” he said.