Something to prove

DENVER – Eric Byrnes plopped down at the podium of the Coors Field interview room on Saturday afternoon, grabbing a pair of microphones on the table and pulling them toward him like pints of suds as if he were ready to opine to the local barkeep.

Byrnes had some things on his mind, and he wasted little time in striking a defiant tone in the middle of the National League Championship Series. From his comments and his clubhouse’s mood, you would never know the Arizona Diamondbacks were in a predicament from which no team has ever recovered in LCS history, trailing the Colorado Rockies two games to none in this best-of-7 series that resumes with Game 3 tonight.

“We have not been outplayed,” Byrnes said. “If anything, it’s the other way around.”

He didn’t guarantee victory, but he went on to say the Rockies have gotten all the breaks and the Diamondbacks could use a little luck.

Just like that, Byrnes grabbed some headlines, gave the Rockies some bulletin-board material and perhaps reinvigorated his own clubhouse.

Not that they needed any confidence boosters. They are a club that has latched on to the idea that no one believes in them, so their current position seems to fit them well.

“I guess we’ve got to win it in six now, huh?” third baseman Mark Reynolds said after Friday night’s Game 2 loss. “We’re never down in this clubhouse. We’re always confident.”

They will need to be.

Since the LCS switched to a best-of-7 format, no team has ever come back to win a series after losing the first two games at home.

“There’s no pressing in this clubhouse,” first baseman Conor Jackson said. “We don’t know where the panic button is.”

They were loose and relaxed watching college football in the Coors Field clubhouse before Saturday’s workout, and they seemed to enjoy the second-hand reports of what Byrnes said in the interview room.

Byrnes seemed to have talking points. Midway through answering a question about today’s starter, Livan Hernandez, he veered off and began addressing people who doubt the team.

“I’m sure you guys are all probably writing us off; I don’t blame you,” he said. “We haven’t done a whole lot to make you guys think we’re going to win this series.

“I think we’re a good team. I also don’t think the Rockies have outplayed us, because they haven’t. Not even close. They’ve had a little luck go their way. Definitely the ball has bounced in their direction. They’ve been the beneficiary of some calls.”

There is some evidence to support those claims. The Rockies have had several close plays, including an umpire’s call, go their way.

In Game 1, there was Justin Upton’s interference call and Matt Holliday’s slow roller, a ball that was foul before making a right turn and hitting the third-base bag. In Game 2, Yorvit Torrealba dropped a single on the right-field foul line and Ryan Spilborghs’ slow roller turned into a hit that started Colorado’s rally in the 11th inning.

And it’s not like the Rockies have hit many balls hard all series yet have scored eight times off Diamondbacks’ pitching.