DENVER • A strange thing happened on our way to another pitiful Colorado baseball summer.

The Rockies dumped Clint Hurdle and promoted Jim Tracy.

A team that seemed buried in May is scaring teams in June. The Rockies have been mighty since coming to life June 4 at Houston.

Tracy even referred to the Rockies as a “championship-caliber club” after Sunday’s 7-1 stampede over the Seattle Mariners.

Championship caliber?

That’s getting a little carried away.

But the Rockies could take a wild-card ride to the playoffs.

The Rockies have outscored opponents 73-28 during the streak. Bats are booming. Pitching is consistent and strong.

Most important, the team’s leadership is vastly improved. Tracy stunned me when he took over from Hurdle on May 28.

He was alarmingly calm. He surveyed the wasteland that was the Rockies and said he saw a winner.

I kept wondering what strange angle he was using to examine the team. He saw a sleeping winner. I saw a team in ruins.

Evidence was in my favor. In May, the Rockies lost seven games by at least five runs. They had just been trashed in a three-game home series by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On the day Tracy was promoted, the Rockies had the second-worst record in baseball. His steely confidence seemed delusional.

But the Rockies were listening to Tracy’s remarks. They wondered if he would blow up the squad and start over.

Instead, he said he had faith in the players already in the clubhouse.

And those players were lifted by his hope.

“Definitely, definitely,” said center fielder Dexter Fowler. “We knew he was behind us. He encourages us.”

In Hurdle’s final days, the Rockies quit listening. Hurdle allowed his team to slip into slumber.

Hurdle almost always went by the book, taking few chances. He despised improvisation, and if he had a choice between going with the odds or taking a daring, bold risk, he usually went with the odds.

Tracy’s finest moment might have come Friday night at Coors Field. Heading into the ninth inning against the Mariners, Tracy had to choose between sending starter Ubaldo Jimenez back to the mound or going to his bullpen.

Jimenez had not been dazzling. He had allowed eight hits and four runs. The odds – and traditional baseball strategy – called for a reliever.

Tracy went with his gut. Jimenez mowed down the Mariners and walked away with a tarnished yet impressive complete-game victory.

When Tracy was hired, he seemed a strange choice. He was a Hurdle loyalist. He had been fired twice, by the Dodgers and Pirates, in this decade.

But during this month, he’s been golden. He’s been given a fresh chance, and he, in turn, offered grace to a lost team.

“You know something,” Tracy said, flashing a thin smile. “You can’t wait to get to the ballpark. I think that’s the attitude of our entire clubhouse.”

Despite all the recent good times, the Rockies remain a game under .500 and stuck in third place behind the Giants and Dodgers.

Tracy, of course, sees nothing but good times ahead.

“It’s a good team,” Tracy said. “It’s a good team. These are talented players.”

A good team. A couple of weeks ago, those words would have inspired pained laughter all across the Front Range.

Now, a revived team is battling to be worthy of Tracy’s hope.

The Rockies are 13-4 under interim manager Jim Tracy. Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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