SnakeLines, Week 20: Late Wins

Week 19 review

As you may recall, our line last week was based on the number of TOOTBLANs (base-running blunders) accumulated by the Diamondbacks over the series against the Mets and Orioles. Now, stop me if I'm wrong here, but I wasn't able to find a single example of one over the six games. There certainly weren't any caught stealing: we went 5-0 in that department. Similarly, I couldn't find any pickoffs, and the number of OOBs (outs on basepaths) shown by Baseball Reference appears still to be 35, what it was at this point last week.

It would appear, from what I can see, that the nearest we came was Gerardo Parra running into an out at home in the opener of the Baltimore series, only to be awarded the base due to fielder's obstruction [which sounds like something suffered by the Detroit slugger, after a heavy night at the post-game buffet...] It's possible I may have forgotten one, but considering the line was set at 3.5, the odds of having missed four TOOTBLANs seems pretty remote, so this round can only be classified as a thumping victory for those who went "under". Bets were about evenly-split again, which seems the mark of a well-judged line to me. Here are the results and updated standings:

• Winners (11): Angry_Saguaro, AJV19, AzRattler. catbat, eel, FlannelFlapjacks, frienetic, Gildo, grimmy01, piratedan7, xmet
  
• Sinners (10): AzDbackfanInDc, blank_38, GuruB, imstillhungry95, JoelPre, preston.salisbury, rd33, SenSurround, TolkienBard, walleye01
  

Standings

• 12 points
  blank_38
• 11 points
• 10 points
  AJV19
  Gildo
  grimmy01
• 9 points
  
• 8 points
  
• 7 points
  AzRattler
  GuruB
  JoelPre
  piratedan7
  SenSurround
  TolkienBard
  xmet
  
• 6 points
  Angry_Saguaro
  walleye01
  
• 5 points
  frienetic
  rd33
  
• 4 points
  azshadowwalker
  Craig from Az
  FlannelFlapjacks
  Marc Fournier
  
• 3 points
  azcougs
  AzDbackfanInDc
  BigLeagueAZ
  eel
  imstillhungry95
  preston.salisbury
  
• 2 points
  bozzy35
  BrokeNBattleX
  catbat
  Maizefed
  Songbird
  TimInTucson
  
• 1 point
  AZfan85308
  babakolo
  backtocali
  benhat
  BobRob12
  LiamNeeson
  Muu
  navyazfan
  porty99
  Shawnwck
  Xipooo
  
• 0 points
  azsportsfan31
  BattleMoses
  Daniel Corbin Jr.
  Diamondhacks
  hotclaws
  leemellon
  littleRoom
  PatrickPetersonAZ
  since_98
  Stumpy657
  Surksquatch
  

Week 20 line

I was going to make it walk-off wins, and see how many people realized we are now going on the road, and so can't get one of those! But I decided that would be cruel and unusual, so instead, let's go for the away from home equivalent. What we're looking for are games where the Diamondbacks are tied or behind after eight innings, and end up victorious. As examples of this, Tuesday's and Wednesday's games against the Orioles would count, but Monday's would not, as we were 6-5 up after the eighth, and it took Brad Ziegler's first blown save of the season in the top of the ninth, to set up Adam Eaton with the walk-off.

So far, the team has picked up 16 late wins: we are an impressive 12-3 when the scores are tied at the beginning of the ninth, and we have also come back from behind on four occasions [As well as the last two Baltimore games, the others were @ COL (4/21) and @ LAD (6/10)]. However, the latter are relatively rare, and it's more likely that any win will come from a close game where we're level after eight. There are seven games this week, with three in Pittsburgh followed by four in Cincinnati, so will the Diamondbacks be able to draw any further from their well of late-inning heroics?

Diamondbacks late wins: 1½

Usual rules. Pick Over or under in the comments, by first pitch tomorrow against the Pirates (4:05pm, Arizona time. Get it right, and get a point, to be reflected in next week's standings.