The Colorado Rockies are stuck. Stuck at 4.5 games behind the NL West leader, which has gone back and forth between two teams. The Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants have fluctuated in the top spot in the division over the last week or so, though the Giants have a 0.5 game lead over the D'Backs entering this weekend's series with the Rockies.
But ever since the middle of May, the Rockies have seen first place slip away from them. But even as bad as this team has looked recently, the NL West lead has never gotten too far ahead of the Rockies. Yes, the Rockies have a below-.500 win and the D'Backs and the Giants each have 31 wins, but there are still long stretches of the schedule left where the Rockies play the NL West teams in straight series. August's schedule ends with four straight series against NL West teams (three on the road) and there are seven games against the Giants in September, including the last series of the season.
It's still far too early to look ahead to the last month-plus of the season, but as long as no team in the West catches fire, the Rockies are far from out of this thing.
The NL West standings: