Preview, #16: 4/14 vs. Padres

There may or may not be a line-up above, depending on when it becomes available. We’re leaving the house quite early today, as we’re off to roller derby. The Cactus Cup invitational is on over on the East side of town, so we’re making a day of it, going somewhere for breakfast first. Therefore, not going to be around for much of this one: will be home in time for the first episode of Game of Thrones naturally... No prizes for guessing that’s going to be the theme of today’s Win Probability graph! [And as I write this, the line-ups have appeared - never mind...]

Hopefully it won’t be another one-run loss, like the first three games of this series against San Diego have been. At least it’s not the Dodgers. The last two times that Arizona has lost three one-run games against the same time, it was Los Angeles on both occasions. Last season, from August 31-September 2, we dropped three in Dodger Stadium, all by the same score of 3-2. And in 2017, there was the infamous July 4-6 series, where we lost 4-3, 1-0 and 5-4. Before that, you have to go back to May 2011, when we did it in San Francisco - that was part of the franchise worst streak of five straight one-run defeats. Weirdly, this is the first time we’ve lost three consecutive games by one run, with all of them at home.

In case you’re wondering, the major-league record is seven one-run losses in a row, held by the 1919 Washington Senators. This was part of an overall eleven-game losing streak they suffered in May. They were swept 1-0, 5-4 and 2-1 by the St. Louis Browns, then 6-5, 3-2 and 4-3 by the Chicago White Sox, and finally 5-4 by the Yankees. The record for consecutive wins is 7 as well, belonging to the June 1927 Cubs. The D-backs have never won more than three such contests - they did that twice last year, the last time being August 24-26 against the Mets and Giants. But I think, right now, I’d settle for just about any result this afternoon EXCEPT another one-run defeat...