The Diamondbacks and Dodgers enter the weekend deadlocked in their season series, with three games left to settle it. Arizona has already made one roster decision that points toward the next turn in the rotation: Michael Soroka is expected to replace Drake on Tuesday against the Rockies at Chase Field when he comes off the injured list.
That call seems to have been made after this week’s performances left too wide a gap between Drake and Mitch Bratt to ignore. The bullpen, meanwhile, is in decent shape, helped along by Philip Abner absorbing more than fifty pitches in his outing. Even so, there was some surprise that Abner did not get sent to Reno as well for another fresh arm, since he may not appear again in this series after that workload.
The bigger picture is the season matchup with Los Angeles, which sits at 5-5 heading into the final three games. Arizona has not won the season series since 2018, when it went 11-8 against the Dodgers.
The last two seasons have at least been competitive, with the Diamondbacks finishing 6-7 both in 2024 and 2025. That’s a far cry from the 2021-22 stretch, when Arizona went a combined 8-30 against Los Angeles.
Last season, the D-backs had their shot to take the season set. They entered the final series at Chase Field tied 5-5, won the opener on Geraldo Perdomo’s walk-off hit after coming back in the ninth, and then dropped the next two. The second game went 11 innings, and the finale turned into an 8-0 loss as Arizona finished the year on a five-game losing streak.
This time, the Diamondbacks will be hoping for a different finish. If they get into the postseason, there’s a real chance the Dodgers could be waiting in the wild-card round, and Arizona would like the regular-season results to carry some weight if that matchup comes around.
In Other News...
Diamondbacks Bullpen Just Took Another Hit Fans Were Dreading
The late-season bullpen picture in Arizona took another damaging turn with A.J. Puk now sidelined for the rest of the year. The left-hander had already been on the 60-day injured list while working back from previous UCL surgery, and he has not pitched since April 17, leaving the Diamondbacks without a power arm they had hoped to lean on down the stretch.
For a club trying to piece together innings, losing another reliever is the kind of blow that changes how a staff is managed every night. There is at least some long-view optimism here, since the organization does not believe Puk will need another surgery and is expecting him to be in line for Spring Training next year, but for now Arizona is left to keep patching a bullpen that has taken too many hits already. [Read more 🡒]
D Backs Top Pitching Prospect Is Forcing A Bigger Rotation Question
The climb from internal brace surgery has already been impressive enough for Jordan Hagaman to turn heads in the Diamondbacks system, but he kept adding to his case in Double-A Amarillo. Even in a 4-0 loss to Arkansas, the right-hander matched his career best with 10 strikeouts, another sign that his stuff and his workload are holding up as he moves through his first real stretch against tougher hitters.
What makes Hagaman so interesting for Arizona is not just the strikeouts, but the way he has paired them with consistency over his last seven starts. He has emerged as the organizations top-ranked pitching prospect, and the larger question now is how soon the Diamondbacks will have to start thinking about him as more than a future piece, especially if he keeps handling advanced bats the way he has lately. [Read more 🡒]