The Arizona Diamondbacks have reached the point of the season where every night feels like a test, and their final homestand arrives with the playoff math still tight. Entering Friday’s opener against the Texas Rangers, Arizona sits at 78-69 and is just half a game behind the San Diego Padres for the National League’s final wild-card spot.
That gap has been bouncing back and forth for days. The Diamondbacks and Padres have spent much of the past week swapping places, with one team nudging into the last playoff position before handing it right back the next day.
Arizona has stayed in the chase by doing just enough on the road. The club won a series against the Houston Astros last weekend and followed that by taking two of three from the Kansas City Royals this week. Those results have kept the D-Backs firmly in the mix, even if the offense has not been firing the way it needs to.
Wednesday’s loss to Kansas City was another reminder of that. Arizona scored only two runs, went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and continued a frustrating trend: in eight of its last 10 games, the team has been held to two runs or fewer, not counting extra innings.
That has pushed even more pressure onto the bullpen, which has become one of the most reliable parts of the roster. The relievers have been able to hold games together while the lineup searches for big hits, and that matters even more in tight games. Over the last three series, Arizona’s bullpen has posted a 2.82 ERA, according to StateMuse.
There’s also a little more depth on the pitching side now. Corbin Burnes, Zac Gallen and Michael Soroka have all come back from injuries, and Ryne Nelson is still working his way back in Triple-A. He may return before the regular season ends.
None of it has been clean or easy, but the Diamondbacks have at least put themselves in position to keep fighting. The next nine games come at home, starting with three against Texas, then three against the Miami Marlins and three against the New York Yankees. After that, Arizona closes the regular season with three games at Colorado and what could be a decisive three-game set at San Diego.
FanGraphs gives the Diamondbacks a 45.8% chance to make the postseason. San Diego is the nearest rival, but Arizona also has to keep an eye on the teams behind it, including the Pittsburgh Pirates and Miami, while the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs remain ahead in the wild-card picture.
For the Diamondbacks, this homestand may end up telling the whole story: whether they head into the final week still in charge of their fate, or waiting on results elsewhere.
Arizona and Texas begin their series on Friday, Sept. 11, at 6:40 p.m.
In Other News...
Diamondbacks Get A Needed Corbin Carroll Boost At The Right Time
Corbin Carrolls latest scare appears to have come with a relatively clean bill of health, and that is a big relief for a Diamondbacks club that cant afford many more losses from the top of its lineup. An MRI showed no serious injury, and Carroll is expected to be available against the Texas Rangers as Arizona opens a crucial homestand with postseason implications hanging over every game.
Even before the injury concern, Carroll had been trying to work through a slump, but his value to this team has never really been in doubt. Arizona needs his speed, energy and presence in the lineup to help steady a stretch that could define its playoff push, and simply having him back on the field gives the Diamondbacks a much better chance to build momentum at the right time. [Read more 🡒]
D-Backs Bullpen Revival Comes With One Catch Fans Should Note
For years, the Arizona bullpen was a nightly source of anxiety, with the group landing near the bottom of the league in key pitching measures from 2017 through 2026. This season has looked different. The relief corps has climbed into the middle of the pack, and for a fan base that spent a lot of time bracing for late-inning trouble, that alone is a meaningful shift. It is not the sort of dominant unit that changes the conversation on its own, but it has been steady enough to give the club a better chance to protect leads.
The catch is that the improvement has not been spread evenly across the group. A few relievers have carried a heavy share of the load, posting low ERAs while seeing the ball more often than anyone else, and that kind of reliance can shape both the numbers and the managers choices. So while the bullpen is clearly better than it was in recent seasons, it still does not stand as the best relief staff in franchise history, and the next test is whether this version can hold up once the workload starts to pile on. [Read more 🡒]
D-Backs Just Got Another Wild Card Concern They Didn't Need
Zac Gallens night was over after 3 1/3 innings in Arizonas 5-2 loss to the Royals, forcing the Diamondbacks to turn to Mike Soroka in relief for the first time this season. It was the kind of pitching wrinkle a club can survive once in a while, but not when the standings are tightening and every game starts to carry a little more weight.
Corbin Carroll created the bigger concern before first pitch, getting scratched because of a back spasm and now lining up for an MRI. For a team trying to stay in the Wild Card mix, any absence from one of its most important everyday players changes the tone of the day fast, and it adds another layer of uncertainty at exactly the wrong time. [Read more 🡒]