MLB: "A PIVOTAL TURN'; COLORADO ROCKIES, "ROAD-BURNED" // NBA: "HEAT VS. SPURS."

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner . . . MLB: “A PIVOTAL TURN”; COLORADO ROCKIES, “ROAD-BURNED” // NBA: "HEAT VS. SPURS.”. . . MLB---AROUND early June of an MLB season there’s a sense of “new semester,” of a “phase two,” of “the next lap to complete up a steeper hill.” It’s when managers and players know that their efforts to rise or maintain within the game’s standings have to be taken more seriously than in April and May. The race is definitely for keeps now. The dog chosen to be fed could be the dog that a team ends up with come September. So, which teams are up now, which down at this critical juncture, at this crossroads where the wrong direction can be taken unwittingly? The big surprises after nearly 60 of 182 games played by each of the 30 MLB clubs this season are the National League Central’s number one club, the 35-23 Milwaukee Brewers leading number two, the St. Louis Cardinals, by five wins, and the NL West’s Arizona Diamondbacks having been at last place within the division’s ranking, now at 23-35. But the Brewers haven’t the best lead as a numero uno club. That distinction belongs to the NL West’s 37-20 S.F. Giants having a seven game edge over division number two, the L.A. Dodgers. Today, the Giants have the most wins across both leagues, while the Brewers and the American League West’s Oakland A’s are tied at two wins back, the A’s having one less loss than the Brewer’s 23 losses. The three clubs are the only ones performing above a .600 average. Another unexpected standing is the AL East’s 27-30 Boston Red Sox being in that division’s fourth position, at .474, when last year the Red Sox won the WS. Within the AL, nine of the 15 clubs are at or above .500 today, and within the NL it’s seven of 15 teams at or above .500. Among third position franchises, the NL West’s 28-28/.500 Colorado Rockies hold the most games-behind record, seven back of number one, the Giants. Yet the Rockies are only one win behind number two team, the Dodgers. Worst record within both leagues today belongs to the NL Central’s Chicago Cubs, 20-24, .370. . . COLORADO ROCKIES ---IN the week that Colorado Rockies shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki, graced the cover of Sports Illustrated, his team faltered, dropped from second to third place within the National League West. Yep, the road curse, if you want to believe in such happenings, but a better guess is that a Rockies starting pitcher rotation has lacked enough skills for a series of wins overcoming the barriers that get in the way of most MLB teams on the road. Only 12 of the 30 MLB clubs have winning road records, the best being 18 wins over 11 losses belonging to the S.F. Giants. The L.A. Dodgers are also 18-11 on the road. Most of the remaining road records average out as three more losses than wins. Within these, the Rockies hold the MLB third worst road record for the season to date, 12-21. Worst of all now is the NL Central’s 10-21 road record. Rockies starters LH Franklin Morales, RH Jhoulys Chacin and RH Adam Ottavino, they’ve been major reasons why the Rockies total starter ERA has been above 5.0, a problem seen as worse when on the road the Rockies line-up fails to offset the weak mound performances, for instance, Rockies LF Carlos Gonzalez and C. Wilin Rosario slipping back of expectations, their batting average now .258 and .225 respectively, while Tulowitzki and RF Michael Cuddyer have held above .300. From all of this is heated-up pressure for a 10 game homestand that with enough wins within could make up for the Rockies poor away from home record. Three of the upcoming Rockies home games will be against the NL West’s Arizona Diamondbacks, followed by three versus the NL West’s L.A. Dodgers, then four vs. the NL East’s Atlanta Braves. Winning each of the three series, 2-3, 2-3 and 3-4, could give the Rockies seven wins, plus a division’s second position berth and an above .500 rating. . . // . . NBA ---IT begins Thursday night, the NBA 2013/14 Finals, the Miami Heat versus the San Antonio Spurs, about as close to a clash of equally strong teams as could be, each team equally capable of prevailing against the other, although each in different ways. During the year’s conference championship best-of-seven series, each team went to six games, and neither with more than one dramatically overwhelming final score of games played by each. There was a lot of immediate trading of baskets netted, a team ahead of another often by no more than two to four points, and when a lead greater than 10 occurred there was fast catching up, yet in final periods after one and two point differences went back and forth there was explosiveness taking a team ahead by more than just a few points. . . The Heat faced the Pacers with both confidence and caution, rightly so. Game One final score, Pacers 107, Heat 96; Game Two, Heat 87, Pacers 83; Game three, Heat 99, Pacers 87; Game four, Heat 102, Pacers 90; Game Five, Pacers 93, Heat 90; Game Six, Heat 117, Pacers 92. The game with the best differential favoring the Heat was Game Six, which finished with the Heat 15 points ahead. The game with the slimmest lead at endgame for the Heat was Game Two, the Heat winning by four. Total number of points gained by the Heat during the Heat/Pacers series was 591; total number of points gained by the Pacers, 552, the Heat ahead by 39 points. Meanwhile, the Western Conference Game One finished with the Spurs 122, the Oklahoma City Thunder, 105; Game Two, Spurs 112, OKC Thunder, 77; Game Three, the Thunder 106, Spurs 97; Game Four, the Thunder 105, Spurs 92; Game Five, Spurs 117, Thunder 89; Game Six, Spurs 112-107. Total number of points accrued by the Spurs during the six games, 652, by the Thunder, 589, Spurs ahead by 63. The tallies show the Spurs had put up only 24 more points than the Thunder in its six conference games, than the Heat had in its conference series, which is but a six point lead per game when averaged across the six game series, if a tell it’s that neither of the two franchises is poised to knock off the other 4-0 or 4-1---the NBA 2013/14 Finals could be another nail-biting six game set. END/ml