Tony DeMarco

DENVER - With a voice hoarse from an emotion-filled World Series, Colorado Rockies owner Charlie Monfort spoke from the heart in a clubhouse filled with equal parts consolation and congratulation.

Monfort had just watched his team be outscored 29-10 in a four-game sweep at the hands of the world-champion Boston Red Sox. But two one-run losses — including a 4-3 decision in the clinching Game 4 — and a one-run deficit in the seventh inning of another defeat told him something entirely different.

“I’ll wake up tomorrow morning and say, ‘wow’,’’ Monfort said. “These guys did some amazing things. I think this team is a better team than Boston. What a deal they did.’’

Did you say better than the Red Sox, Charlie?

“I think so,’’ Monfort repeated. “How did we win 21 of 22? We got the breaks. Well, I think (the Red Sox) got the breaks (in the World Series). Are they better than us? I don’t think so. If we play 10 games against them, we win six. We only played four.’’

Monfort’s words weren’t meant to disparage the newly crowned world champions. That’s not his game. His focus rests solely on his franchise. And there was no hiding his — or the entire organization’s — feeling of pride for the coming together of a slow-but-sure rebuilding plan in a record-setting explosion that was their 21-1 record from Sept. 17th through the National League Championship Series.

“I just got through telling (the team) they brought the franchise back to credibility,’’ Monfort said. “They should be proud of that, although they are down right now. That’s what we need to look at. We are a young team. We just gained a lot of experience. We are a team to be reckoned with.’’

Monfort plans is to keep the core of his team together, something he said, ‘won’t be too difficult’ even though a hefty payroll increase will be required.

“The fan support has been tremendous,’’ Monfort said. “I see this team being around for a long time.’’

The best player in that core group is National League Most Valuable Player candidate Matt Holliday, whose future already has become an issue even though he is two years away from free agency.

Monfort said they will offer Holliday a long-term, fair-market contract this winter, “and we hope he accepts it. If not, we’ll go from there. We want Matt here, bottom line.’’

Because in Monfort’s mind, the organization’s new goal is clear: “Get back to the World Series and win it. Now we win it.’’

But first will come the reexamining of what went wrong in this World Series, when the Rockies transformed from world-beaters to easily-beaten after an eight-day layoff following consecutive sweeps of Philadelphia and Arizona on the way to the NL pennant.

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The numbers say it all: The Red Sox outhit the Rockies .333 to .218; they outpitched the Rockies 2.50 to 7.68, and even out-executed the Rockies, belying their reputation as an American League squad of sluggers.

But don’t try to play the layoff-hurt card with Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.

“I hate to make excuses; they played better than us,’’ Tulowitzki said. “I don’t think the layoff hurt us. We got behind, and we never rebounded.

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“They did it all. They pitched. They hit. They played defense. They play the game the right way. We tried to grind out at-bats, but their pitchers got the better of it.

“We came a long way. No Rockies team ever got to the World Series before, and there haven’t even been many winning seasons. Our time will come. We should never get accustomed to losing, but we should also be happy. We are heading in the right direction.’’

Manager Clint Hurdle also pondered the layoff question prior to Game 4, and wouldn’t change much if he had the chance to do so.

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“I don’t know how you recreate a World Series environment,’’ Hurdle said. “I don’t know how you recreate a playoff environment in practice. There might be some things we talk about. But as far as gearing up to go, keeping focused on what we need to stay focused on, not worrying about what we can’t control, I think we handled that professionally.

“I think our guys kept focused on the upcoming series Game 1, and that only. We didn’t talk a lot about time off, historically what happened with time off, or what went right or what went wrong.

“We were in uncharted territory. We handled it, I think, professionally. I’m not sure right now — I’ll give it some thought in the off-season — how many things we could have done differently to create a more different environment, a more challenging environment.’’

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