The Arizona Diamondbacks’ biggest issue right now is impossible to miss: the bats have gone cold when it matters most.
By the time Friday’s game in Houston was just getting underway, Arizona had managed only five runs over its previous 38 innings. That slump made this week’s fan poll feel pretty straightforward. Clutch hitting - or the lack of it - stood out as the top concern as the club moves deeper into the final months of the season.
And the timing has only sharpened the frustration. The Diamondbacks just went through an entire series against Philadelphia without an RBI hit. That kind of stretch is hard to ignore, even if the numbers suggest there’s more volatility here than a full-season collapse.
Arizona’s production with runners in scoring position has bounced all over the map month to month. In April, the team was elite in those spots, posting a .291/.341/.561 line for a .902 OPS, which ranked first in MLB.
May was still strong at .270/.347/.422, good for a .769 OPS and eighth in the league. June was where things really cratered, with a .162/.288/.259 line and a .548 OPS, ranking 29th.
July climbed back some to .237/.323/.388 and a .711 OPS, which put the club 21st. August was the best recent stretch, with a .248/.324/.472 line and a .797 OPS, good for fifth in MLB.
Taken together, the picture is uneven, but not hopeless. Arizona is actually plus-34 points with runners in scoring position compared with its overall line, sitting at a .744 OPS in those situations versus .710 overall.
That’s not some wild outlier either; across MLB, teams have generally hit a little better with men in scoring position, with the league marks sitting at .742 and .719. The numbers point toward some regression to the mean over the rest of September.
If anything, the Phillies might be the club most likely to feel that kind of correction. They enter this weekend nearly 100 points better with runners in scoring position, at .811 compared with .713 overall.
Still, the offense may not be the only thing worth watching. The starting rotation is the part that feels more pressing to some. The return of Corbin Burnes and Michael Soroka should help, especially after the replacements in the rotation have been shaky.
Eduardo Rodriguez, Brandon Pfaadt and Merrill Kelly have combined for 68 starts and a 3.55 ERA heading into Friday night’s game. But if you take out Soroka’s 18 starts, the rest of the rotation has made 55 starts and posted a 5.54 ERA.
That’s a big gap, and it means Burnes and Soroka do not need to be perfect to matter. They only need to be better than the arms they’re replacing.
That also leaves Zac Gallen out of the equation, at least for this comparison, despite his pre-IL ERA of 6.34.
In Other News...
Diamondbacks Put Brandon Pfaadt In A Brutal Spot Tonight
The Diamondbacks keep running into the same problem at the worst possible time, and it has turned Brandon Pfaadts assignment into a tough one to navigate. Arizona has scored one run in four straight games, the fifth time that has happened in franchise history, and the offense has been stuck in a stretch that has produced a .174 batting average and a .510 OPS over the last five games. Even with a low BABIP of .229 suggesting some of this skid has been driven by bad luck, the lineup still has to find a way to give its starter something to work with.
Pfaadt gets the ball tonight with a chance to steady things, and he has earned that trust with multiple scoreless outings this season. He has also shown well against division leaders, which makes this matchup feel like a legitimate opportunity for Arizona to stop the bleeding. The question now is whether the bats can finally give him the kind of margin that has been missing throughout this stretch, or whether another good start ends up buried under the same lack of support. [Read more 🡒]
Diamondbacks Face Tough September Calls As Playoff Push Tightens
Arizonas September has turned into a test of patience, with the offense going cold at the worst possible time and the postseason race leaving little margin for drift. While the big-league club searches for answers, one of the organizations brighter notes has come from the farm system, where Avery Owusu-Asiedu has been surging again since his promotion to Double-A, homering in four straight games for the second time in a month.
The front office, meanwhile, has had to keep juggling the bigger picture around the edges of the roster. The Diamondbacks already announced their spring training schedule even with the threat of a lockout hanging over that calendar, and they also designated Jorge Barrosa for assignment as they continue sorting out the roster. Corbin Burnes is expected to be activated on Tuesday, a timely boost if Arizona is going to stabilize its run production and make this late push feel anything like a climb instead of a crawl. [Read more 🡒]
Diamondbacks Just Delivered The Kind Of Win Fans Can Rally Around
For a Diamondbacks club that has spent plenty of recent nights looking for a clean finish, this one had the kind of shape fans can latch onto. Arizona went into Daikin Park and beat the Astros 4-3 in 10 innings, with Ketel Marte supplying another big swing when he launched his 22nd home run of the season to keep the lineup moving in the right direction.
The closing stretch carried the sort of tension that can linger for a visiting team in Houston, and Arizona got just enough relief work to hold it together. Brandyn Garcia collected his fifth save with a sharp finish to the extra-inning frame, giving the Diamondbacks a win built on timely hitting, a late push, and a bullpen effort that gave them something real to build on. [Read more 🡒]