Checking my handy pocket calendar of improbabilities, I see it is about time for the Rockies to do it again.

Up to now, this season has been a tedious tease; win a few, lose a lot. Win a bunch, lose a few. But we're used to that.

It has forever been so, not often with a World Series at the end.

And if this seems still a little early for the Rockies to click off 14 of their last 15, to extend that in the playoffs to 21 of 22, some preparation is required to get the Rockies where they were when what became Rocktober really began.

(Once again, I am ready to give up my trademark on Rocktober if the Rockies make good use of it. If not, then I have no use for it anyway.)

Roughly, and that is surely how it will be, a little less than six weeks remain in the season. The Rockies have been holding as steady as a tattoo at eight games behind first-place Arizona, the place where they must be at the end.

No side door, wild card, extra-game, face-first slide will save them this year. It is division title or nothing.

Too far? A Rockie's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's the National League West for?

As amazing as it would be if they could pull it out again, it is almost as amazing that they still have a chance to pull it out.

All the signals are there. Starting pitching has been solid, including Jeff Francis, who has moved from loser to no-decision, a certain step forward. The bullpen has been better than solid. What would that be? Unchewable?

Brian Fuentes has moved from dangling trade bait to whipsaw closer, possibly only for what time remains before his free agency. But the harder Fuentes works to impress future employers, the better it is for the Rockies now.

Hitting is again timely, no longer the curse of the season, and power has been more handy than erratic.

The absence of Todd Helton is oddly and sadly not an issue, the old warrior allowing young Ian Stewart to hurry toward his potential. All the several possible trades of Helton the last few seasons, none of which were made, had this very scenario at the back of them.

For good or for ill, the Rockies have their own example to use, that impossible is what someone else believes.

Faith is a friend to lean on, faith in themselves, faith by management in keeping them together and faith of the fans, (attendance is up 5,000 or so a game from last season and is better than the Diamondbacks).

The schedule from here, weighed slightly at home, offers six chances at the Diamondbacks and another three at the Dodgers. Otherwise, it is a lot of Giants and Padres and the hapless or hopeless from Cincinnati, Houston and Atlanta.

The Rockies couldn't ask for a better mix of challenge and opportunity at the end.

And now for that most dreaded adventure in column writing, statistical analysis.

It would seem that the Rockies' job might be even a bit easier than it was last year, considering that at the same date, they had just lost an 11-inning game to the Pirates, were seven games back but had three teams in front of them. Now there are only two.

They have just beaten the team just ahead of them, the Dodgers, two out of three and are playing well enough to keep the eyes of the Diamondbacks on the nightly scoreboard.

Their record was better last year with 33 games to play (66-63), but then, so was every other team's in the West. And if the Rockies had to win 90 games to match Arizona (with one more loss due to the playoff game) no such number is needed now.

At the rate the Diamondbacks are playing, going into last night's game against the Padres, they will win 85 and to get to that same place the Rockies will only need to play slightly better than they did from this date last season.

At that 2007 rate, the Rockies would finish with 83 wins, or just a couple from where they would need to be and maybe good enough if Arizona finds another funk to fall into and the Dodgers stay running in place.

How simple. And I didn't even need a calculator. Anything that can be figured in your head is not only possible to do, but probably bragging.