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D-backs Preview #70: 6/17 @ Giants

“A great day, comrades. We sail into history.”

On the set of The Hunt of Red October Photo by Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

Today's Lineups

DIAMONDBACKS GIANTS
Josh Rojas - 2B LaMonte Wade - LF
Pavin Smith - CF Donovan Solano - 2B
Eduardo Escobar - 3B Mike Yastrzemski - RF
Christian Walker - 1B Wilmer Flores - 3B
Carson Kelly - C Brandon Belt - 1B
David Peralta - LF Curt Casali - C
Josh Reddick - RF Steven Duggar - CF
Nick Ahmed - SS Mauricio Dubon - SS
Zac Gallen - RHP Kevin Gausman - RHP

Roster move

The Arizona Diamondbacks made the following roster moves:

  • Reinstated RHP Zac Gallen (sprained right elbow) from the 10-day injured list.
  • Following last night’s game, optioned RHP Humberto Castellanos to Triple-A Reno.

Gallen returns to the rotation, and will immediately attempt to be the “stopper,” as the Diamondbacks once more stand on the verge of matching the franchise-worst 14-game losing streak. When we last dodged that particular bullet, all the way back on... Er, May 30, you’d have been forgiven for thinking it was over. I mean, it had been almost 17 years since the team had lost more than 11 in a row. If it was another 17 years before it happened again, I think we’d all have been fine with that. But here we are again, less than three weeks later, and the record has another chance to be matched. No, seriously, baseball gods? WTF? I blame those TikTok dances.

Updating the piece from a couple of days ago, here are the teams to have had multiple 13-game losing streaks in the same season. It’s a considerably shorter list than the previous one:

  • BSN 1909: 15 + 13
  • BSN 1911: 16 + 14
  • PHI 1919: 13 + 13
  • BSN 1935: 14 + 15
  • NYM 1962: 17 + 13
  • ARI 2021:13 + 13 (ongoing)

Obviously, having them so close to each other is unprecedented, considering there have been fewer than a hundred 13-game losing streaks in the entire history of baseball. The nearest were the 1919 Philadelphia Phillies who lost 13 in a row from June 6-20, then 13 more from June 28-July 9. But even they got a week off between the streaks, going 3-3 in those games. I suspect, but haven’t been able to check, that the D-backs current spell of 2-27 is very likely the worst 29-game spell of baseball ever. We’ll see what happen this afternoon, and if they can make it a round 30-game spell of near-impeccable suckitude.

No Torey pre-game session today. It’s probably for the best.