Rockies endure 4 games in 4 cities in 5 days

MILWAUKEE» Four games in five days. Four cities. Three time zones.

No major league franchise has played in that many cities in that few days and against that many teams since the 1922 Phillies, but there’s no time to rest for the Rockies.

Colorado must rally off the mat from its second consecutive extrainnings affair, this one a 32 loss to the Brewers on Thursday in Game 1 of the National League division series.

Rockies manager Bud Black believes there’s still more in the tank for his team amid the physically and emotionally exhausting road trip that’s spanned nearly 2,700 miles.

“We’re hanging in there,” Black said. “It’s been a rough stretch the last three or four days, but I think the day off yesterday helped, and I think the postseason energizes players, so we’re fine.”

Colorado began its Rocktober grind on Sunday with a 120 victory over Washington at Coors Field to force Monday’s NL West tiebreaker game against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

After falling in that game, a deflating 52 loss, Colorado had little time to process the defeat.

The Rockies immediately took a latenight charter to Chicago.

On Tuesday night, Colorado outlasted the Cubs in a 13inning thriller lasting nearly five hours that finished just past midnight central time Wednesday.

Outfielder Charlie Blackmon admits feeling the effects of the past few days.

“Physically, I felt really terrible during the wild card game,” Blackmon said. “Having the day off yesterday, I don’t feel good, but I don’t feel bad. So I feel like a baseball player, and 90 percent of the games are played somewhere in the middle (of that grind). I look forward to being right there tomorrow.”

Blackmon added the intensity of this week’s games, plus the pressurized final weekplus of the regular season which preceded it, has forced the players to dig deeper to stay focused.

“We were flying all over the place, and we were (one of ) the only teams to play 10 games in a row to close the regular season,” Blackmon said. “The problem is, after we played 10 to close the regular season and then after everybody’s tired, you start adding super highleverage games on top of that.”