Familiar story? Padres may lead the Dodgers, but Rockies are coming and looking dangerous

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Don’t look now, but the Rockies look like they’re warming up.

‘The Rockies are good,’ said Dodgers Manager Joe Torre. ‘They scare the heck out of me.’

They should, too. The Rockies keep hanging around despite a disproportionate number of injuries.

Thursday they completed a three-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals, with Ubaldo Jimenez holding the Cards to three hits over eight innings to raise his record to 15-1.

The Rockies have won six of their last seven and eight of their last 10. They’re making noise, and now meet the Padres for a three-game series heading into the All-Star break.

All without star Troy Tulowitzki (fractured wrist). All with starter Jorge De La Rosa on the disabled list, with closer Huston Street just working his way back, with Todd Helton now on the DL.

The Rockies are 47-38 and may be just hitting their stride.

‘They are tough,’ Torre said. ‘We’ve had success, we’ve played well against them.

‘They have that one kid who pitched today who’s pretty special. I happened to turn it on today and it was the eighth inning and he’d thrown about 84 pitches. That’s scary. That’s very scary.’

The Dodgers are 4-2 against the Rockies this season. They were an impressive 14-4 against Colorado last year.

Last year at the break, however, the Dodgers were 56-32 and enjoyed a seven-game lead in the National League West.

This year the Dodgers are struggling to get untracked.

The Rockies are a proven second-half team -- last year they went 42-39 in their first 41 games and 50-31 in the second 41 -- and are now in position to cause real trouble in the NL West.

-- Steve Dilbeck