ROCKIES BATTLE TO STAY ALIVE IN PLAYOFFS

Human element provides Rockies a fighting chance

We are all Tony Wolters now.

If baseball were dictated purely by the numbers, then there would be no reason to open the gates of Coors Field, no reason for the Rockies to show up Sunday and play, no reason to believe they can come back against a 20 deficit in thisbestoffive National League division series against Milwaukee.

So you’re telling me there’s a chance? Are you dumb? Or dumber? In a sport increasingly influenced by analytics, history insists Colorado has a 12.7 percent chance of winning three games in a row in the National League division series.

That means the Rockies have less of a chance to rally against the Brewers than Wolters and his .170 batting average had of driving in the winning run that eliminated the mighty Cubs from the playoffs during the 13th inning in Chicago last week.

As the clock struck midnight in Wrigley Field, and Tuesday became Wednesday, Wolters dug in the box, with two outs in a game tied 11, as teammates Trevor Story and Gerardo Parra anxiously stood on base.

Can I make a confession? I took a peek at which batters were due up for the Cubs in the

bottom of the 13th, because I knew what the math said about Wolters’ chances of keeping getting a hit.

“There was no way, right? The numbers said there was no way,” Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich recalled Friday, while sitting in the thirdbase dugout at Miller Park. “But there’s a human element.”

Bridich graduated from Harvard. So he certainly understands how the quants have cleaned the tobacco juice from oldtimey baseball notions and replaced it with computer printouts of new ways to analyze efficiency, utilizing advanced stats with acronyms like BABIP and WRC+. But as a former catcher, Bridich also appreciates and places value in the relentless optimism that flows through Wolters with every beat of his heart.

“Baseball is ultimately a human experience. It’s not a numbers experience,” Bridich said. “Now, it can be a numbers experience, for fans or analysts that choose to have a numbersfocused experienced, because that’s what really gets them going about baseball and that’s what they love about the game.”

The cold, cruel numbers suggest the Rockies have come down with a deadly case of bat rot on the road. During the past week, in four games from Los Angeles to Chicago to Milwaukee, they have hit .176 as a team, producing only six runs in 41 innings. Away from Coors Field, they are all Tony Wolters now.

That’s not a good look. It’s bleak. Bridich, however, believes the resiliency and mental toughness to these players gives them a chance to punch through the ugly statistics, rather than surrender to those daunting numbers.

“Running a team, being part of a team and living through it all, not just 162 games but seven months of a long season? That’s a human experience,” Bridich said. “So there are things about these human beings that are so valuable that numbers could never, ever truly quantify or calculate.”

The anxiety in the swings by Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story during two games against the Brewers have made them hitters that appear to have more in common with Wolters than legit candidates for most valuable player in the National League. Two games, however, do not qualify as a funk, unless you let playoff pressure mess with your head. Prior to Game 3, I’m confident Rockies manager Bud Black will remind Story and Arenado to trust their talent rather than to listen to whispers of doubt.

“We try hard to remember that it’s the human beings that play the games, it’s not the numbers that play the games,” Bridich said. “Look, it’s just how we choose to operate. I’m not saying it’s magic or it’s the only way to do business. I’m not saying it’s necessarily the right way to do things with a capital R. I’m just saying that’s how we as the Colorado Rockies operate.”

At Miller Park, where the Rockies had less chance to score than Lloyd Christmas did in “Dumb and Dumber,” there was a common, irrational theme that emerged in the visitors’ clubhouse after the discouraging 40 loss in Game 2. Carlos Gonzalez, Black and Kyle Freeland insisted Colorado is not done yet.

“We’re coming back here,” Vinny Castilla told me, before he and the team departed Milwaukee. “We’ll be back on Tuesday, ready for Game 5.”

The math says: No way. The heart says: Why not?

We are all Tony Wolters now.