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The Padres proved as much use as a chocolate teapot last night, completely failing to stop the Cubs in the opener of their series in San Diego. Admittedly, the D-backs didn’t do much to stop Jacob deGrom and the Mets, but it’d have been nice to get some help from a team whose manager used to work for the Diamondbacks. Due to this, Arizona drops 2.5 games back of Chicago, and lost more than 5% off their playoff odds at Fangraphs.com. As mentioned in yesterday’s preview, this wasn’t a game I expected to win, but the recent struggles of the offense have been problematic. They’ve only reached tacos once since September 2, though are 4-2 in that time, due to sterling work from the rotation.
Indeed, before Merrill Kelly’s quality loss last night, Diamondbacks’ starter had not taken the loss in a decision since Zac Gallen in Milwaukee on August 24, a spell of 13 consecutive games. Including the L’s on both ends, here have been Arizona’s starting pitching performances over the last 15 games, or three times around the rotation. During this time, the Diamondbacks’ starters are 8-2 with a 3.03 ERA, have struck out more than a batter per inning (87 K’s in 86 IP), and given us an average Game Score of 57.
D-backs starters, Aug 24-Sep 9
| Rk | Player | Date | Opp | Rslt | Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | GSc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Date | Opp | Rslt | Dec | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | GSc |
| 1 | Merrill Kelly | Sep 9 | NYM | L 1-3 | L | 6 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 49 |
| 2 | Mike Leake | Sep 8 | CIN | L 3-4 | 6.1 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 54 | |
| 3 | Alex Young | Sep 7 | CIN | W 2-0 | W | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 0 | 89 |
| 4 | Robbie Ray | Sep 6 | CIN | W 7-5 | 4.1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 50 | |
| 5 | Zac Gallen | Sep 4 | SDP | W 4-1 | W | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 82 |
| 6 | Merrill Kelly | Sep 3 | SDP | W 2-1 | W | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 78 |
| 7 | Mike Leake | Sep 2 | SDP | W 14-7 | W | 6.1 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 41 |
| 8 | Alex Young | Sep 1 | LAD | L 3-4 | 4.1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 50 | |
| 9 | Robbie Ray | Aug 31 | LAD | W 6-5 | W | 5 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 38 |
| 10 | Zac Gallen | Aug 30 | LAD | W 5-4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 50 | |
| 11 | Merrill Kelly | Aug 29 | LAD | W 11-5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 44 | |
| 12 | Mike Leake | Aug 27 | SFG | W 3-2 | W | 7.1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 63 |
| 13 | Alex Young | Aug 26 | SFG | W 6-4 | W | 5.1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 56 |
| 14 | Robbie Ray | Aug 25 | MIL | W 5-2 | W | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 63 |
| 15 | Zac Gallen | Aug 24 | MIL | L 0-4 | L | 5 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 53 |
| TOTAL | 86 | 69 | 30 | 29 | 27 | 87 | 10 | 860 |
That’s an impressive streak, especially considering Arizona managed it after dealing away Zack Greinke, their consensus “ace” at the end of July. However, this has helped conceal a rather underwhelming set of results from the offense: in those same 15 games, the D-backs are hitting a collective .245, with an OPS of .733. That’s forty-one OPS points below the Arizona season figure to that point. They have largely been carried by Ketel Marte (OPS 1.267) and Wilmer Flores (1.167) over that spell, with the likes of Nick Ahmed (.606) and Jarrod Dyson (.350) needing to start carrying their weight. If they can do so tonight in New York, we’d all appreciate it...