Can the Arizona Diamondbacks keep sizzling sufficient to pivot their latest success into the playoffs? That is now the query on the minds of Diamondbacks followers after their newest victory.
On Thursday, Arizona beat the MLB-worst Colorado Rockies, 8-2. And whereas a win over the lowly Rockies does not warrant purpose for an excessive amount of confidence, the win marked the Diamondbacks’ ninth of their final 12 video games.
After going 0-4 in July, starter Eduardo Rodriguez picked up his second win of August because of considered one of his greatest performances of the 12 months. Rodriguez struck out six batters and allowed just one run in seven innings of labor on the mound.
However despite the fact that Arizona has benefited from higher pitching just lately, it has been profitable because of a potent offense. The Diamondbacks have now posted six or extra runs in six of seven video games heading into Friday’s contest in Colorado.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. turned Thursday’s hero, crushing a three-run blast for his fifteenth house run.
Now 60-62, Arizona nonetheless sits two video games beneath .500, making it possible that the Diamondbacks’ latest improved play nonetheless may be too little, too late to make it sufficient to unlock the opportunity of an October run.
A part of the issue stems from wanting up at each the Los Angeles Dodgers and the present division-leading San Diego Padres within the Nationwide League West. The Dodgers and Padres are solely separated by one recreation, however the Diamondbacks are 9.5 again themselves.
Arizona even misplaced two out of three to San Diego earlier within the month earlier than its newest sizzling streak.
Wild card-wise, the Diamondbacks are 4.5 behind in a crowded race for postseason positioning. If the common season ended proper now, the Chicago Cubs, Dodgers and New York Mets would make it because the three wild-card groups.
Behind these groups, the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds are additionally forward of Arizona.
So whereas the percentages are stacked towards the Diamondbacks, they now are beginning to determine the crew’s true potential. Arizona followers might even be remembering the crew’s late-season dash to the playoffs that led to capturing the Nationwide League pennant and the franchise’s second journey to the World Sequence simply two years in the past.
One alternative for the Diamondbacks to maneuver nearer to a playoff spot, not less than within the wild-card race, shall be once they host the Reds in a three-game sequence from Aug. 22-24.
