Diamondbacks and Rockies know each other well

The Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies start every season at training complexes six miles apart in Tucson, where players bump into each other even off the field.

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After a half-dozen spring training games and 18 regular-season NL West meetings every year for the past decade, there is not much they do not know about one another.

They do know one thing – the winner of the NL championship series that begins here today will go to the World Series, while the loser will not play again until the cycle starts all over in Tucson in 2008, and that is enough.

“These are our good buddies over there, but don’t get me wrong. I want to beat them,” Conor Jackson said.

“There would be no better feeling than beating this team, because I guarantee you that next February and March there are going to be some bragging rights. It’s going to be a fun series.”

Fun and, to hear the players tell it, because of the familiarity lacking in “uh-oh” moments.

“There are no secrets. There is no trickery. Everybody pretty much knows what they have and what it is going to take,” Tony Clark said.

“You are not going to go out and all of a sudden find somebody’s hole (in a swing). You know it already. You are not going to all of a sudden position your defense differently. You know where guys hit the ball, and you know what their tendencies are.

“When this series is said and done, I’m sure it is going to be the team that executes the best and makes the fewest mistakes that is going to put themselves in a position to win,” Clark said.

The teams are close in so many respects. They each won 90 games, although it took the Rockies one more game, their tie-breaker playoff victory over San Diego.

They both swept their NL division series, the Rockies by continuing the best run in franchise history, in which they have won 17 of their past 18.

The D-Backs, who had a 21-6 late-summer run to take a giant step forward in the division, are the only team to have beaten the Rockies in that stretch, and that was when D-Backs Game 1 starter Brandon Webb beat Colorado Game 1 starter Jeff Francis, 4-2, on Sept. 28 in Coors Field.

“It gives me a little bit of confidence to know it was me that beat ’em,” said Webb, 1-3 against Colorado this season.

Colorado leads the NL in hitting behind MVP candidate Matt Holliday and first-time postseason participant Todd Helton, who like Jeff Cirillo ended a career-long playoff drought in the first round.

The Rockies set a major league record for fielding percentage behind an infield defense anchored by rookie shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who hit 24 home runs while leading NL shortstops in fielding percentage.

His counterpart, D-Backs shortstop Stephen Drew, had seven hits in the NL division series, more than Cubs Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez, combined, and also sparkled in the field.

The D-Backs had 12 walkoff victories this season, Colorado had nine.

The D-Backs’ bullpen was statistically the best in the league. Colorado’s relievers had the second-best ERA in the 15-year history of the franchise.

“Gosh, we’ve faced their pitchers, faced their bullpen, a bunch of times,” Jackson said.

“When I go up there to hit, I know what I’m going to get. It’s just whether we hit it or not.”

While Holliday and Jimmy Rollins are top candidates for NL MVP, Eric Byrnes will get votes after becoming the 11th player in major league history with 20 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season.

Byrnes had an early look at this Colorado team when he spent two weeks with them in 2005, coming from Oakland before being traded to Baltimore.

“When I was with them in 2005, I knew they were going to be good,” Byrnes said. “It was just a matter of time. I was there for a short period of time, but I would have loved to stay.

“It looks like it has worked out very well for both of us.”

The teams also have made it to the national spotlight without drawing the attention of the ALCS matching Boston and Cleveland.

“Who cares?” Jackson said. “We have the best record in the NL. The Rockies had the second best record. I don’t understand the old these-teams-aren’t-good-enough or these-teams-aren’t-old-enough to win arguments.

“I think we’re all a little sick of hearing that, because look at there we are right now. We’re in the championship series. That speaks for itself.”