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Diamondbacks post-season magic number: 13
Diamondbacks home-field magic number: 16
Diamondbacks division anti-magic number: 11
Kinds sad that, for the past two days, I’ve been able just to copy/paste the good magic numbers from the previous days preview - the only one which has been going down is the one for the Dodgers to clinch the NL West. Though that has, at least, not been going down of their own volition, Los Angeles now having lost nine in a row and fourteen of their last fifteen. It’s a quite spectacular tailspin. For context, the only two streaks the Diamondbacks have ever had that bad, came in July 2004 and April/May of 1998. Neither of those teams were exactly World Series contenders. I trust the same will be true for the 2017 Dodgers.
Arizona finds itself looking down the barrel of a broom, if that isn’t a painfully mixed metaphor, having lost the first two games, courtesy largely of Patrick Corbin and Fernano Rodney not doing their jobs. It’s the first time this season we’ve had consecutive loss-flavored tacos - that has only happened one other time since the end of the 2014 campaign. The previous occasion came on June 25-26 last year - probably unsurprisingly, in Coors Field, when we lost 6-11 and 7-9. Hopefully, Arizona does not follow the same path we went there, as that kicked off a six-game losing streak. The last consecutive losing tacos at Chase were April 2014 (5-8 + 6-8 vs. LAD).
We do have Robbie Ray, who has been stellar since his return to the rotation. He has allowed two runs over 19.1 innings, with a K:BB of 33:4. He has struck out over 45 percent of all the batters he has faced. 57 percent of outs Ray has recorded have been by the K. So, we should be fine. Admittedly, I said something not too dissimilar before Corbin’s start on Friday night, and we all know how that went. Won’t be about too much for this one, as Mrs. SnakePit and I will be going to see It at the movies. I hope this turns out to be the most horrifying thing I have to watch this weekend, though after the 4th inning on Friday and the 9th yesterday, it’ll have to go some.