DENVER – Now, this wasn't his Jeter moment. Troy Tulowitzki, 23, big bat, scary arm, dancer's feet, baseball wired into his head as if through some fiber-optic cable, will have one of those, a play that amalgamates his brain and brawn and defines him the way the where'd-he-come-from backhand flip and faceplant into the stands did Derek Jeter.

No, this was too subtle for that, which is a surprise, because rare are the moments that Tulowitzki and subtlety meet. He draws the comparisons to Jeter, after all, because he roars with fire, chafes at indiscretion, bucks like a wild beast anytime something goes awry with his Colorado Rockies. And, yes, they undoubtedly are his. It is with little shame that the Rockies' elders defer to Tulowitzki, a rookie in name alone, and allow the shortstop to play captain for the hottest team the game has seen in years.

So the play. Third inning, Game 2 of the NLCS. Arizona's Chris Young has singled in a run to tie the game 1-1, and he takes off running.

PHOENIX – The Catch – the one that most of the country missed because it regards the National League championship series as baseball's version of must-flee TV, and, yes, the one that most certainly deserves an upper-case C – should have been a double. It should, by all reasonable measures, have landed deep in Chase Field's right-center field gap and left its pursuer, Willy Taveras, in a dejected lump on the ground.

What should be, however, isn't, not when it has to do with the Colorado Rockies, who over the last month have turned the NL on its head, their own history inside out and, in Friday's case, a double into a spectacular catch.

Taveras' dead sprint, about 125 feet over a dozen strides in 5 seconds, put him in position to dive and save Tony Clark's potentially game-changing seventh-inning drive. And four innings later, with Game 2 of the NLCS tied, Taveras' bases-loaded walk against Arizona Diamondbacks closer Jose Valverde drove in Ryan Spilborghs for the game-winning run in

PHOENIX – The view from Section 307, Row 40, Seat 13 – the one that not a single person of the four million living in the Phoenix metropolitan area cared to inhabit Thursday night during the biggest baseball game of the Arizona Diamondbacks' season – was quite nice. Take in a few innings from that seat down the right-field line, the field unfolding in an expansive portrait, and the game feels so much more real than TV's microwave-popcorn version of it.

Hector Tapia and Eddie Reyes, sitting three seats down from lucky No. 13, didn't know until 8 a.m. Thursday that they would come to Game 1 of the National League championship series. During homeroom at Summit High, the 18-year-old seniors' teacher told them that because of their perfect attendance this year, each would receive a ticket – face value: $60 – gratis.

"And even then we weren't going to come," Hector said, "but we figured we had free tickets."

The announced attendance for Thursday night's game, a 5-1 victory by the surging

PHOENIX – Only the goatee remains. The rest of Todd Helton's face from the first day of the Colorado Rockies' spring training has vanished.

The scrunch of his nose, the furrow of his brow, the snarl of his lip – all signs that Helton would rather be anywhere else. Maybe a mortuary or the elephant cage at the zoo or purgatory. Because, hey, the Colorado Rockies – Helton's Colorado Rockies – seemed a dead-end franchise that stunk and wasn't going anywhere.

Now, just the goatee, still bushy, though much better kempt. It matches the glow on Helton's face. His eyes flitted around the Rockies' clubhouse Wednesday, and he smiled, and he joked with Kazuo Matsui, and … wait. The Rockies, playing in October? The Colorado Rockies? Helton's Colorado Rockies, the franchise that couldn't, or at least hadn't, causing him to entertain a proposed trade to the Boston Red Sox this offseason?

All of this is a little much, seeing as just 231 days ago, Helton showed up at Rockies camp in Tucson, Ariz.,

The first sign of sage sprouted more than a decade ago, long before Tony Clark appeared in a major-league uniform. It was a gray hair, and he was 21 years old.

More and more would come, enough to keep a Bic on permanent retainer, at least until they better suited his role. Young turkdom lasts only so long, after all, and early on, Clark understood that he might be an even better mentor and example than he was a baseball player.

Which, seeing his four 30-home run seasons and career slugging percentage a couple dinks and dunks shy of .500, says an awful lot about his character. It is, in fact, perhaps the most referred-to inanimate object around the Arizona Diamondbacks' clubhouse these days, more than Chris Young's athleticism, Stephen Drew's clutch hitting, Brandon Webb's guile and Bob Melvin's savvy.

Yes, Tony Clark's character is a character, and a big one, as the Diamondbacks set to open the National League Championship Series against the Colorado Rockies at Chase Field on Thursday.

CHICAGO – Year 99 ended like all the ones before it, with a disappointment, only this one came so decisively that Chicago Cubs fans didn't bother booing at the end. Losing in Wrigleyville is like breathing and walking and sleeping, more function than action, and as such a passive indifference helps them accept that next season will mark 100 since the Cubs' last championship.

Granted, this one was uglier than most. First off, it came in the postseason, a National League division series sweep courtesy of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have existed 122 fewer seasons than the Cubs and could match their number of World Series titles with another this year. And the season died with all the peace of a shiv to the jugular, what with Chris Young taking Rich Hill's first pitch Saturday night deep into the left-field bleachers at Wrigley Field, starting the cascade toward the inevitable disappointment.

The final was 5-1, though the score was immaterial. Inconsistency plagued the Cubs all season,

Deer-hunting season opened in Oregon about a week ago, so Wally Backman stocked his RV with food and ammo and headed for Pueblo Mountain. It's serene up there – about 6,000 feet above sea level, only eight miles to the Nevada border and a world away from the National League playoffs.

"Did the Diamondbacks win Game 2?" Backman asked Friday night. The TV in his RV has no cable, and he only knew that Arizona had beaten the Chicago Cubs in the NL division series' first game because a friend told him. Yes, he was informed, the Diamondbacks had won the second as well, leaving them a Saturday victory at Wrigley Field from the NL Championship Series.

"OK," Backman said, and he sounded neither excited nor disappointed. More plaintive, which about fits a man who thinks he should be on his way to the NLCS instead of eyeing a buck that exceeds his 12-point best.

Had all of his past misdeeds not been exhumed – the DUI, the domestic-violence rap, the bankruptcy – Wally Backman would, in all

Yahoo! Sports national baseball writer Jeff Passan is blogging Game 2 of the Phillies-Rockies series. Send questions or comments to readoctober@yahoo.com for possible publication.

6:41 p.m. ET: Rockies win the game. Rockies will win the series. We'll be back at the end of the Yankees-Indians game with some analysis. Thanks for reading.

6:40 p.m. ET: OK, strikeout looking. Slider on the outside corner. Corpas has some nasty stuff.

6:37 p.m. ET: Best guess: strikeout swinging.

6:36 p.m. ET: Back-to-back singles for Utley and Burrell off Corpas. And up steps Ryan Howard.

6:23 p.m. ET: Sinker pounded into the ground. Atkins fields it cleanly and throws Ruiz out at first. Now I feel rather safe in saying: Adios, Phils. It was a nice run. TBS executives must be elated with the prospect of an Arizona-Colorado NLCS.

6:23 p.m. ET: Slider for strike one looking. Nice.

6:22 p.m. ET: For TBS producers: Have you had a Corpas-cam all day to ensure he's not using a foreign substance?

6:20 p.m. ET: