Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #158: 9/27 @ White Sox

Ranking the power rankings

• MLB.com; #12 (last week #13)
• CBS Sports: #12 (last week #12) ‐ "Corbin Carroll is the 36th rookie in MLB history to steal at least 50 bases. Esteury Ruiz of the A’s also got there this season. They are the first players to do so since Billy Hamilton stole 56 in 2014."
• USA Today: #11 (last week #12) - "Zac Gallen crosses the 200-inning plateau while throwing his eighth scoreless start of the year."
• Sports Illustrated: Ranked only the post-season contenders, split by league, so this is an estimate. #9 (last week #8) - "The Diamondbacks lack pitching depth, which will likely burn them in a long series. But in a best-of-three, Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly can piggyback them to a series win, similar to how Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson carried the D-Backs to a World Series title in 2001. The Snakes also have a deep lineup and are capable of spraying the ball all over the field. Just don’t have them play the Dodgers!"
• ESPN: #12 (last week: #13) - "The way the D-backs navigated through last week served as a perfect encapsulation of how wacky and unpredictable the wild-card races have been this year. They lost three straight to the lowly Mets, with the Cubs on tap, set to match up the top of their rotation against the back end of Arizona's. It seemed as if the D-backs were destined to fade down the stretch. Instead, they swept the Cubs over the weekend, vaulting into the second wild-card spot. "We're trying to win out," D-backs first baseman Christian Walker said after Sunday's game. "We want to give ourselves a no-doubt chance, and we understand how hard it is and how quickly things change." Do they ever."

NL West Average Rankings

I excluded the SI ranking as they didn't list most of the teams. The Giants and Padres ended tied in the averages, but I gave third to the Padres based on the more recent Rankings.

1. Dodgers: 2.5
2. D-backs: 11.2
3. Padres: 17.5
4. Giants 17.5
5. Rockies: 28.0

3-2

Huge turnaround yesterday. At one point, the D-backs were three down after another Davies stinker, and the Cubs were up big in Atlanta. There was a real possibility Arizona would end the day out of the picture. But they scored fourteen runs without reply, while Chicago melted down. Meanwhile, the Marlins game was postponed, so they have to play six games in five days to finish the season. Going 3-2 means the Cubs would have to win out and the Marlins go 5-1 for the Diamondbacks to be eliminated. 2-3 would probably be sufficient now, and 1-4 might even do. But let's not push it, m'kay? Here are the Fangraphs post-season odds going into play today.

• Diamondbacks: 89.0% (+10.2%)
• Marlins: 56.6% (+0.5%)
• Cubs: 41.6% (-15.4%)
• Reds: 12.8% (+4.8%)
• The field: 0.0%

Your scoreboard watching schedule

Weird to have the second game in a weekday series have such an early start. But of course it's because this was originally scheduled as the series finale, before an off-day tomorrow. Monday's contest got bumped to Thursday, so it'll be the same early start tomorrow. At least we can focus entirely on this one, without being distracted by events elsewhere!

• Arizona D'Backs @ Chicago White Sox 11:10 am
• Cincinnati Reds @ Cleveland Guardians 3:10 pm
• Miami Marlins @ New York Mets 4:10 pm
• Chicago Cubs @ Atlanta Braves 4:20 pm
• Miami Marlins @ New York Mets TBD
• Houston Astros @ Seattle Mariners 6:40 pm