High mountain to climb in NL West

DENVER — The scorecard in the archives of the Rockies’ history stands like this: World Series appearances 1, NL West titles 0.

No divisional crowns is a particular figure that All-Star shortstop Trevor Story and his teammates are keenly aware of and hope to remedy, especially with the Rockies climbing into a place they’ve rarely been this late in the season: All alone at the top of the NL West. The Rockies haven’t occupied first place this late in the year since 1995.

They began an off day Thursday with a 11⁄ game lead over the Dodgers and 2 games over the Diamondbacks. The Rockies (7762) start a pivotal stretch by hosting the Dodgers for three games starting Friday and the D’backs for four more.

“Adivision title would be huge, obviously, since we’ve never done that,” said Story, who crushed three homers Wednesday, including one that went a Coors Field-record 505 feet according to Statcast. “We’re very confident we can do it. We’re going for it.”

The Rockies are a little bit of an anomaly among division-leading teams with a minus-8 in run differential. For comparison, the Red Sox in the AL East are plus-223 and the defending World Series champion Astros in the AL West are plus-235 .

The Rockies don’t even have the best odds of making the postseason out of its division. According to ESPN, they have a 48.2 percent chance, while the Dodgers check in at 77.6 percent.

“I still think we are the best team and I know when we are doing things right and playing the way we should,” said righthander Jon Gray, who pitches Friday as the Dodgers counter with ace Clayton Kershaw. “We are going to be where we need to be at the end of the season.”