Preview, #151: 9/16 vs. Marlins

It is now a total of 14 runs over nine games, the worst such offensive spell for Arizona in more than sixteen years. We mentioned the predecessor in yesterday’s preview about the most pitiful hitting streaks in team history, and that is now the only set of games which have seen this or a lower total. It reached its nadir from June 22-30th in 2003, when the D-backs managed only 11 runs over nine games, managing no more than two runs in any of those contests. No team in the National League has had a longer streak than that of two or fewer tallies per game for more than forty years. You’ve got to go back to the 1978 Cardinals, who managed 17 runs over an 11 game such streak.

So, things could clearly be worse, with the D-backs having managed to score the dizzy heights of three runs a couple of time lately. Just not much worse. For over those nine games and 312 trips to the plate (so about half a season for a player), the Diamondbacks have now batted a paltry .155, with an OPS of .469. If they were that individual player, they would probably have found themselves DFA’d. Indeed, that’s exactly what happened to Blake Swihart, who had a very comparable OPS of .458, over considerably fewer PAs - a mere seventy. Updating another earlier stat, Jarrod Dyson, Carson Kelly and Abraham Almonte have combined to go 0-for-32 in this time.

It’s a shame, because the pitching has been pretty good. They have an ERA of 3.54 in these games - and that includes the two games against the Mets, which were lost by a combined margin of 20-1. The problem has been the long ball. Over those 76.1 innings of work, Arizona’s staff have allowed no fewer than twenty home-runs, with Zac Gallen, Mike Leake and Jimmie Sherfy each giving up three. Considering the pitchers have been charged with only 30 earned runs... it’s an issue. The seven unearned runs are also a bit of a problem, though five were in one game. But it’s almost irrelevant what the hurlers do, if the hitters ain’t hitting and scoring.