DENVER – Minus a rangy second baseman, the Colorado Rockies have fielded the same team that played last year’s postseason.

Too bad.

The Rockies need to be better than that if they’re going to come close to making the playoffs again.

Obviously some explanation is needed.

The Rockies team that played last year’s postseason, making it to the World Series, combined timely hitting with a heaping of good fortune to make it to baseball’s largest stage. That Rockies team did not hit well. Let’s repeat that: that Rockies team did not hit well at all.

In the seven games leading up to the World Series the Rockies hit, .188, .257, .267, .242, .211, .231 and .222.

The Rockies are hitting .198 now.

After Friday’s series-opening loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Rockies manager Clint Hurdle was asked if his team was feeling effects akin to a “hangover” after last season’s amazing sprint to the regular-season finish.

It’s seemed like a joke to Hurdle. At least, that’s what he turned it into, calling it a four- or five-month hangover.

Hurdle left the post-game interview room and mockingly yelled toward the clubhouse, “Hey guys!”

Presumably, Hurdle would’ve told the players not to worry that they were only going through a hangover.

Ha ha. Very funny.

But it doesn’t look like any amount of tomato juice, apples, raw cabbage or kudzu extract will immediately help the Rockies’ “hangover.”

If the Rockies’ home opener wasn’t bad enough, Saturday’s 7-2 loss to the Diamondbacks exposed more of the same struggles the Rockies have been dealing with since the end of last year’s regular season.

The Rockies didn’t lose four straight last year until June 25. Time to worry? Probably not. They can be given the benefit of early season struggles. Still, there is much that needs to be addressed.

The Rockies have scored eight runs in five games. They’re leaving too many runners stranded, batting a paltry 4-for-42 with runners in scoring position.

Saturday, the Rockies loaded the bases in bottom of the eighth, with no outs. They couldn’t manufacture a run. Instead they came up with two consecutive strikeouts and a ground ball. It was a great play by the Diamondbacks’ third baseman, but it was still a ground ball out with bases loaded.

“That’s not the way we like to play,” Hurdle said. “It’s not acceptable. We need to play better. We know that.”We’re not clicking in any specific area right now.”

The problem is the Rockies don’t appear as if they’re close to clicking. The team had some better at-bats from their prime players Saturday. But those at-bats didn’t come in the critical moments. Defensively the Rockies look sloppy.

The routine plays should be routine. Right now, they don’t look that way.

They still look like the team that played in the World Series.

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