The stage is set for the most dramatic game in Colorado Rockies history

DENVER – The stage is set. The time is now. The game is on.

The Colorado Rockies can still win their first ever National League West title. But it won’t be easy.

As it was always going to be, as it has almost always been, the road for the West goes through Los Angeles and the boys in blue. It had to be this way. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best.

One game for all the marbles. The time is now.

After both clubs emerged victorious by incredibly wide margins on Sunday afternoon, the two teams still stand tied at 91-71 and will face off in a one-game play-in on Monday in LA.

Outside of the year 2007, this will be the biggest game in the history of the franchise. And the setting is even more dramatic.

Colorado returns to the scene of the crime where it appeared for a while like that had laid their own postseason hopes to rest just a little over a week ago. Getting swept in three games, they were punched in the gut by big home runs from Chris Taylor and Yasiel Puig, and stifled by the pitching performances of Hyung-Jin Ryu, Clayton Kershaw, and Walker Buehler.

Buehler got the better of them in the finale the last time these two teams faced each other, striking out 12 Rockies hitters and allowing just three hits over six innings of work. The visitors will counter with their own strikeout artist, German Marquez, who is riding high after breaking his organizational record for Ks in a single season and tied a modern-day record his last time out by fanning the first eight batters he faced.

The stage appears set for a low-scoring affair that will go to the team who gets the big hit in the right moment. Or the big break.

It should be a battle for the ages. The plucky underdogs against the big bad bullies of the division. The team with all the money who can acquire All-World players at the trade deadline versus the team that has trusted an often inconsistent but exceptionally exciting group of young players and veterans.

The team that has won the last five NL West titles against a team that has gone 0-for-25.

Of course, both clubs can play with a certain security, knowing that this game, while it is do-or-die for the division, won’t mean the end of either’s season. Whoever loses is off to the National League Wild Card game for another shot to keep the dream alive.

But the difference in the path is stark. A loss in the WC game spells the end of the season and would also mean that Colorado would once again miss out on playing a postseason game in front of their own fans, something they’ve not done since 2009. A win keeps them going but means battling against Atlanta who will have home field advantage.

The Rockies can take the reigns of the NL with a win on Monday, though. Not only that, but they would own the field advantage over the Atlanta Braves for the NLDS.

Nobody gets into professional sports for consolation prizes.

The Colorado club rightfully celebrating their second straight season in the playoffs with a champagne shower on Friday night but knew full well that their sights were set higher. They want this division.

And it is one win away from being in their grasp.

The baseball fans of Denver haven’t had a day this nerve-wracking since the last time they played in a Game 163 during the magical Rocktober run of 2007. And Rocktober is in the air again.

The stage is set. The time is now. The game is on.

Let’s play ball.