Gary Thorne quoted Mets broadcaster Bob Murphy on ESPN Radio’s coverage of the Philadelphia-Colorado game last night, noting “Baseball is a game of redeeming features.” Try telling that to Troy Tulowitzki.

By most measures, Tulowitzki had an outstanding 2009. Recovering from an injury that took out part of his sophomore year, he hit .297 with an OPS of .929. He hit 32 home runs, drove in 97, and scored 101. And he made just nine errors in the field. With the injuries to the Mets’ Jose Reyes and the subpar years of Philadelphia’s Jimmy Rollins and Milwaukee’s J.J. Hardy, Tulowitzki is running neck-and-neck with the Florida Marlins’ Hanley Ramirez as the best shortstop in the National League.

But in the postseason – and especially yesterday’s Game 4 – Tulowitzki failed, and then couldn’t redeem himself. In the sixth inning of last night’s NLDS game, Tulowitzki was on second base after doubling in Todd Helton to cut the Phillies’ lead to 2-1. He was also running at the crack of the bat, even though there was one out. Unfortunately, Garrett Atkins hit a line drive to third baseman Pedro Feliz, and Tulowitzki was doubled off to end the inning.

Not good, of course. But baseball is a game of redeeming features, and Tulowitzki would have two opportunities to redeem himself. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to do so – flying out in the eighth inning with runners on first and second base, and striking out to end the game in the ninth inning, also with runners at first and second.

It was a tough series for the Rockies. They made mistakes. (So did the umpires, as they later admitted Chase Utley’s “hit” during the Phillies’ ninth inning rally should have been called a foul ball.) Closer Huston Street, who converted 35 of 37 save opportunities during the regular season, was unable to close both Games 3 and 4 in the playoffs. Both Tulowitzki and Street will have months to think about what they could have done. (Street’s defeats were both at the hands of Ryan Howard, who’s beaten a lot of pitchers over the last few years.)

Colorado has a young and improving team. Manager Jim Tracy, after doing a so-so job running the Dodgers and a lousy job with the Pittsburgh Pirates (not that he’s in exclusive company there), took over for Clint Hurdle partway through the season and brought them into the playoffs. They have turned a corner, realizing that just because they play in Denver, they should just stock up on sluggers and ignore the pitching. They have a loyal fan base, a marvelous stadium (I’ve never seen a game there, but I went to the park when we visited Denver in November 2001), and an area that should attract baseball talent. Things are looking up.

Just not this morning.

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No baseball for a couple of days. The National League Championship Series will start Thursday night in Los Angeles, with TBS broadcasting the games. The next day, the Yankees and Anaheim Angels Who Claim They’re From Los Angeles start up on Fox (of course). There will apparently only be three days with two games (this Friday, Monday the 19th, and the following Saturday) – that way, the postseason can continue all the way until early November!

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Nice job by ESPN Radio announcers Gary Thorne and Chris Singleton on Game 4 of the NLDS (oddly, ESPN Radio apparently had Chris Berman and Rick Sutcliffe on first two Colorado-Philadelphia games – maybe Berman doesn’t like heights or something). Thorne was a radio broadcaster for the New York Mets for a few years in the mid-1980s, but left because there were conflicts between him doing baseball and New Jersey Devils hockey. He now works primarily for ESPN Radio, although he also does Baltimore Oriole cable broadcasts as well. Met fans hated to see him go (although Gary Cohen, his replacement, is among the best broadcasters out there), but he’s achieved a lot of success with ESPN. It was nice to hear him name-check Bob Murphy last night, as Murphy was primarily known only in New York.

Chris Singleton is an interesting story. He was an average player for a few years with the White Sox and Orioles, but then had some ear problems and wound up out of the game at age 32. He was then hired to be the second voice in the Chicago White Sox radio booth, teaming up with Ed Farmer to replace John Rooney (who left the Sox after a salary dispute). To be kind about it, Farmer didn’t mix well with Singleton; putting it more bluntly, Farmer treated Singleton poorly on the air. Singleton is reasonably well informed and comes up with some good observations, but not surprisingly, on the first year or two on the job he was a little raw, and Farmer was no help at all, sometimes interrupting Singleton’s observations or simply ignoring what he’d said rather than striking up a conversation. After two years, Steve Stone (who had done Cubs games for a number of years) became available, so Singleton, reading the handwriting on the wall, moved over to ESPN, where he’s been a pretty good fit.

ESPN’s doing a decent job of developing baseball color analysts – Aaron Boone (who’s still playing), Rick Sutcliffe, and a few others have done well. (Steve Phillips, on the other hand, has taken a long time for me to warm up to. Of course, I may be blaming him for his tenure as Mets general manager.) The problem, with a few exceptions, is there’s nowhere for them to go from there – very few former players have been able to transition to other sports. (Anyone remember Tim McCarver doing Winter Olympic coverage for CBS in 1992? Didn’t think so.) Maybe ESPN can bring back Sports Challenge one more time to give these guys something to do in the off-season.

Photo Credit: Jeff Gross, Getty Images, originally from about.com.