When the magical Rockies hit the field, sit back and enjoy the show

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Chris Iannetta celebrates with his teammates after hitting a dramatic, game-winning homer in the bottom of the 11th inning on Tuesday. AP

The Colorado Rockies aren't a team, they're an armada. Even their depth is deep. With apologies to Atlanta fans -- all 18 of them -- the Braves are strictly an opening act when it comes to thrills, bedlam and suspense in the National League's wild-card race.

It may have ended on Tuesday night on Chris Iannetta's walk-off homer, an 11th-inning shot that gave the Rockies a 7-5 win over the Milwaukee Brewers and a three-game wild-card lead over Atlanta with five games left. Technically, the Braves have a few cards to play. Realistically, they've heard last call.

As the Braves took their home field Tuesday night on a glorious roll -- 15 wins in 17 games -- they were greeted by virtual silence. For the second night in a row in this crucial series against the Florida Marlins, the actual crowd (forget the announced figure) was in the 15-18,000 range. They still do "The Tomahawk Chop" down there, if you can believe that. Whether in person or through the television airwaves, it feels like a Double-A tilt between Desultory and Forlorn. What a grave disservice is done to Bobby Cox, Chipper Jones and the Braves' superb pitching rotation, and that happens every night.

The Braves lost to the Marlins on Tuesday night because Tim Hudson couldn't keep the ball down, because that rotation finally ran out of miracles. There wasn't much more to the story than that. The scene then shifted to Denver, where a series of novels unfolded.

The Rockies are Troy Tulowitzki, a shortstop with 30 home runs and a signed Derek Jeter bat in his downtown loft. They are Jim Tracy, who looks, sounds and manages like everyone's dad. They are the swarthy Jason Giambi emerging from the dugout in menacing fashion, taking a couple of right-handed practice cuts before settling into the left side of the batter's box. They are Clint Barmes, essentially a utility infielder, checking in with 23 homers and the tumbling, unforgettable catch that ended Sunday's win against St. Louis. (They say Barmes didn't actually catch that ball, but then again, Matt Holliday didn't touch home plate in that 163rd game two years ago. Funny how these quirky developments go so well with autumn.)

Because Tracy wanted to give his right-handed hitters some work on Tuesday, putting Garrett Atkins and Ryan Spilborghs in the starting lineup, that meant he had Carlos Gonzalez, Ian Stewart, Seth Smith, Giambi and fleet prospect Eric Young, in reserve. That's a team built for 11, 14 or 28 innings. The San Francisco Giants, whose pitiful offensive attack let them down so badly in the end, can only dream of such riches.

And to this point, Todd Helton's name hasn't even been mentioned.

It was Helton, the man whose name will find its way into Hall of Fame conversations someday, who produced Colorado's first two runs with a clever opposite-field single and a long double to right. The game seemed somewhat conventional in midstream, Jason Marquis (six innings, 4-2 lead) apparently solidifying his postseason status after posting a 6.49 ERA in his last six starts.

Then the breadth of the Rockies' arsenal became apparent. Dexter Fowler raced from first to third, like a modern-day Willie Davis, on a ground-ball single to left. Stewart contorted like an acrobat to avoid an embarrassing tag-out between first and second. Tracy had Giambi (.560 on-base percentage and 11 RBIs in 18 at-bats) on deck as a potential pinch-hitter in the eighth, then changed his mind and went with Smith, the guy who once backed up Eli Manning at quarterback for Ole Miss. Seems that Smith was hitting .486 as a pinch-hitter and staked his own worthy claim.

With the Rockies holding a 5-2 lead in the bottom of the ninth, it was time to roll the credits. Huston Street had blown only one save all season. His arm problems (biceps tendinitis) had vanished. Two down, two on, he was peering in at Jason Kendall, the veteran catcher who chokes up on the bat, looks like a guy aiming for a 78-hop single to right, and once went 961 at-bats in the big leagues without a home run.

Kendall, naturally, smoked a three-run homer down the left-field line. Dead pulled it. Could have been Mike Lowell with one of those sweet, flick-of-the-wrist jobs. A frenzied crowd fell quiet, but only momentarily. These are the Rockies. There are seemingly hundreds of them, and they all can play.

There's really only one foul aspect to the Rockies' marvelous home atmosphere, invariably a late-innings development, and it's something that must be stopped. Poop-Breath, or whatever that hideous mascot is called, suddenly sets up camp behind home plate to distract the pitcher with gestures, hex signals or the sight of his wiggling butt. The Rockies are in essence a first-rate organization and a credit to the game, but this pitiful display is the very definition of "bush league."

David Weathers, the pitcher in question as the 11th inning began, didn't seem to mind. He's been around the big leagues for 19 years -- at least. There are those who swear he pitched to Musial. He knew Iannetta from earlier this season, when he was pitching for Cincinnati and the burly catcher took him deep in a dramatic Colorado win. Now came the encore, an opposite-field, two-run homer that brought down the house, and especially the curtains.

How appropriate was this whole scene? Iannetta rarely plays these days. He can't find any time behind clutch-hitting catcher Yorvit Torrealba. He's one of Tracy's very last pinch-hitters off the bench. Through it all, somehow, Iannetta has 16 homers. Yet another wave of armada punishment.

By Friday night the scene will have shifted to Dodger Stadium, where the Rockies play their final three games. They are 3-12 against the Dodgers this year, and the Braves close out the regular season with four home games against the dreadful Washington Nationals. But forget all that. You've read a number of schedule analyses in the last two weeks, all of them wrong. Things never develop as anticipated. The Pirates were 3-23 before they took three out of four from the Dodgers over the weekend, and that's all you need to know.

Will the Dodgers coddle their suspect rotation to get ready for October? Would they prefer to see Atlanta win the wild-card, thus avoiding a first-round date with St. Louis or Philadelphia? Will all of that be secondary to the Dodgers maintaining the league's best record? It's baseball. Nobody knows a thing. That's why you don't have to be a fan to enjoy the Colorado Rockies. Just sit back and be amazed.

Bruce Jenkins is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Read his Three Dot blog here.