Diamondbacks Game Preview #58: 6/8 @ Reds

Remember when the Diamondbacks pitching was good? What a glorious month that was. In April, the team had a 3.28 ERA, largely driven by the starting pitching’s lowest ERA in team history, at 2.73. That beat the previous best of 2.76 in August 2001 - back when the D-backs had Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling anchoring the rotation. Of course, the run environment was considerably higher in those days. The NL ERA for starters in August 2001 was 4.77, three-quarters of a run higher than the figure (4.02) for April 2022. But even if the bullpen wasn’t as good, the overall 3.28 ERA for the D-backs over the first month, was still the lowest since August 2018 (2,96). Sadly, it has not proved sustainable:

Part of that can be attributed to the general increase in offense as the season has gone forward. Jack talked about that a bit yesterday, But if you look at where the D-backs rank in the majors, this shows you the issue. In April, they were 10th. In May they plummeted down to 25th, and this month so far they are 28th. Obvious small sample size for June, and playing in the fun-sized environment which is Great American Ball Park certainly doesn’t help the situation. However, for the whole of 2022, they currently sit at or near the bottom of the majors in just about every significant pitching metric:

• ERA; 26th (4.42)
• fWAR: 29th (1.7)
• FIP: 27th (4.46)
• xFIP: 29th (4.46)

The failure was largely concealed in May be the resurrection of the D-backs’ offense, which came seventh in the majors that month with a .753 OPS. But the same can’t be said for June, where Arizona has batted a collective .177, on their way to a stumbling 1-5 start. All those games have been played against below .500 teams, with worse records than the Diamondbacks. They have been out-OPS’s by 355 points so far in June, allowing a .945 OPS against this month, while hitting at .590. In May they were almost equal (-7, .760 to .753) and even in April, they were -68 (.655 vs. .587). If the team is to stick around .500 they need both to hit and pitch considerably better than they have done on this road-trip.