Matt Belisle has a ready explanation for his turnaround, a succinct description of what kept him from pitching the way he did the final months of the season at Triple-A Colorado Springs and carry that over to the Rockies.

“I got a little bit too much in my own way,” said Belisle, twice designated for assignment this season by the Rockies.

That’s not the sort of paper trail pitchers typically follow to arrive in the postseason. But Belisle will be in the bullpen Wednesday when the Rockies begin the National League Division Series with the Phillies, a right-hander capable of pitching multiple innings and getting a strikeout when needed.

This qualifies as a comeback of sorts, not one of those emphatic, can’t-miss comebacks Todd Helton and Chris Carpenter enjoyed this season. No, Belisle’s was a comeback from the major-league fringe to bona fide contributor.

Belisle made the postseason roster on the strength of nine appearances beginning Sept. 10, two days after he was promoted from Triple-A Colorado Springs. In those nine games, Belisle went 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA, allowing nine hits and two runs in 12 2/3 innings with no walks and 10 strikeouts.

The runs scored on solo home runs by Arizona’s Ryan Roberts at Chase Field on Sept. 18 and Milwaukee’s Casey McGehee on Sept. 30, a drive to right-center at Coors Field. After the latter outing, manager Jim Tracy said, “Matt Belisle continues to impress…I know Casey McGehee’s ball left the ballpark. But that’s one this year I can say the wind had a lot to do with that.”

Belisle, 29, seemed to be bucking a headwind at the outset of the season, his start utterly dismal. He began the season at Colorado Springs but joined the Rockies on April 10. In 14 games, Belisle went 1-1 with an 8.31 ERA. He allowed 30 baserunners in 17 1/3 innings and yielded four home runs. Belisle was scored upon in seven of those 14 games, including three of his final four, the last of which was May 20.

On May 25, the Rockies designated Belisle for assignment. He ended up at Colorado Springs, where the Rockies wanted him to start in order to build up his pitch count.
“I was devastated when I went back,” Belisle said, “but it’s all about how you deal with it.”

He made four starts for the Sky Sox from May 29-June 14 and then moved into the bullpen. Belisle began working the seventh inning and ultimately ended up closing for the Sky Sox. But not before another very brief stay with the Rockies, one game and a handful of days.

He gave up one hit and one run to Atlanta on July 11, hours after rejoining the Rockies and on July 16 was again designated for assignment. But for Belisle even to be brought back for that one-game cameo meant he had to have put his disastrous beginning behind him and improved markedly. And better things were ahead for Belisle.

“I worked hard to get on a roll,” he said. “And then it was just about staying on it. I hadn’t tried to go (thinking) any farther past the next day.”

Indeed, in 24 relief appearances with the Sky Sox in July, August and September, Belisle went 0-0 with nine saves and 2.01 ERA. During that stretch, Belisle had four walks and 35 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings.

“I know he was frustrated at being back down in the minor leagues,’ Sky Sox pitching coach Chuck Kniffin said. “The biggest change we talked about was his tempo and getting away from thinking so much.”

In his conversations with Belisle, Kniffin discovered that upon getting the ball back from the catcher, Belisle’s mind feverishly went to work. “His thought process,” Kniffin said, “was ‘Stay over the rubber. Separate (the hands). Execute the pitch.’ There’s too much going on when all you’re trying to do is execute the pitch.”

Kniffin said the result was a slow tempo and a pitcher with good stuff getting away from his strengths. So Kniffin imparted a rather simple message to Belisle: “Get the ball and throw it. Trust your stuff. You got good stuff. Trust yourself. Attack the zone. And that was it.”

Belisle had spent parts of five seasons with the Reds before the Rockies signed him as a minor league free agent in January. He was coming off season-ending knee surgery in August 2008 and a move to the bullpen at Triple-A Louisville after being optioned there in late May following six starts with the Reds.

The Rockies represented a fresh start for Belisle, a chance to find a niche in a new organization. It has worked out that way, but not until Belisle went back to the bullpen June 19 for the Sky Sox and slowly began working his way back to toward September with the Rockies and now on to the postseason.

“I’m not going to say that (quickening) the tempo was the magic,” Belisle said. “I think it’s a lot of combined things. But the biggest idea was get out of my own way and let my ability take care of competing. What I did was make it as simple as possible.”

Included in Belisle’s nine late-season appearances with the Rockies were three scoreless outings of two or more innings, including a three-inning outing Sept. 22 against the Padres. By the time he rejoined the Rockies last month, Belisle had taken to heart Kniffen’s advice: Don’t think. Pound the zone.

And now Belisle has the opportunity to do that on the grand October stage. He has never thrown a pitch in the postseason, where unlikely heroes often emerge. Belisle certainly fills that bill.

“Ever since we got him working quicker and so forth, it was night and day,” Kniffen said. “You saw the results. You saw good things happening. And it snowballed for him.”