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With the losses by everybody last night, the magic numbers drop to one for the D-backs to clinch a post-season spot and home-field advantage. A victory for Arizona in the rubber game of this series will take care of both. Otherwise, we do need the Brewers AND Cardinals to lose today to get in that way, and the Rockies to lose to ensure the game is played at Chase Field. Both St. Louis and Milwakee contests are well under way, since they started at 10:35 and 11:10 am, Arizona time, against Pittsburgh and Chicago respectively, so we should have a good handle on those results. As yesterday, Colorado face San Diego a little later, beginning at 1:40pm.
Though if yesterday is any guide, they’ll still be done before us. The last three Arizona games have taken a mind-numbing 3:47, 3:54 and 3:51, despite none going to extras, It has been a combination of offense - 62 runs scored in total - and September rosters, with both managers effectively having an infinite supply of relievers to play match-up with. Only one team in recorded baseball history has had a longer run of consecutive games over 33⁄4 hours. That came earlier this month (hey, September call ups!), when the Angels played five such: however, three were extra innings. We’re the first NL team ever with 3 such contests, while pitching 9 innings or fewer.
An even more unwanted mark: if we allow double digit runs today, that would tie the franchise record of three times in a row. That has been done twice, in Sep 2002, as well as last season when we conceded 14, 14, and 10 against the Dodgers and Nationals. We’ve allowed 7+ in three straight games, but have still managed to win two out of the three: we did that last year too, in a series against Atlanta at Chase Field where we won 9-8 and 10-9, around a 4-7 defeat in the middle. So the offense has been doing its part: but it would be an awful lot easier for us to clinch, if we get a quality start from Patrick Corbin today!