The Rockies had a rough weekend down in Miami, and it wasn’t because of too many drinks on South Beach. The team dropped two of three games to the Florida Marlins, who have a chance of catching the Rockies in the National League wild-card chase. Despite the two wins, the Marlins are still two games back (via MLB.com standings), and Fox Sport’s Tracy Ringolsby writes that any hope of the fish making the playoffs is a “mirage.”

After that debacle, the Rockies may be happy to head up to D.C. to take on the Nationals, but CBS Sports notes that the Nationals—among the league’s worst teams—have played their best baseball of the season in August and will be looking for their ninth-consecutive home win tonight. Analyzing the Rockies’ day-to-day play misses the bigger picture, though.

The New York Times pointed out over the weekend that the Rox have been one of the hottest teams in baseball since manager Clint Hurdle was fired May 29, going 46-24. That performance is enough to put Jim Tracy in the running for the manager of the year award, which would make him the second-ever midseason replacement to snag the prize.

The Rockies can also look forward to having pitcher Tyler Matzek as part of the team. Their first draft pick this year considered dissing the Rockies and heading to the University of Oregon, but thought better of it and took $3.9 million in bonus money to come to the pros, reports The Denver Post.