Category: Baseball

It was a getaway day for the Nats, who have their first day off in over two weeks tomorrow. Unfortunately, they played like it was a getaway day with a day off coming. This game was pretty uneventful most of the way, and the Guardians just found a way to execute a little bit more than the Nats.

In a 162 game season, these kinds of losses are perfectly acceptable. It would be nice if the Nats were able to find a way to get the sweep though. Just like last year, the Nats have struggled to finish off sweeps. However, it is tough to get sweeps in the big leagues, especially against first place teams like the Guardians.

Just like the first two games, the offense looked good early for the Nats. They really made Gavin Williams work in the first three innings. The Nats were only able to come out of those first three innings with one run, instead of the big crooked numbers they put up the first two games. CJ Abrams drove in the first run of the game, roasting a double down the line to drive in James Wood.

After that, the Nats normally ferocious offense went into a lull. They allowed Guardians ace Gavin Williams to settle into the game and rack up some very quick innings. Williams’ pitch count was in the 60’s after three innings, but he was able to go seven innings on just 94 pitches. 

The Guardians did all their damage in the fifth inning today. It was Guardians ball at its finest, with Cleveland’s pesky bats taking advantage of mistakes and blooping balls into the outfield for hits. The inning started with an error by Curtis Mead at third base. Austin Hedges hit the ball hard, but it was a play Mead had to make.

Since moving to third base, Mead has mostly been solid, and this was his first real mistake. However, the mistake would prove to be costly. A couple batters later, Guardians lead off man Travis Bazzana hit a double to make it second and third with one out. Miles Mikolas then allowed a sac fly to tie the game, which would finish his afternoon.

The normally reliable Richard Lovelady came in with a runner on second. It was just not Lovelady’s day today. He allowed three straight hits and a walk to begin his outing. In the blink of an eye, the game was 3-1 Cleveland. Those would be all the runs the Guardians needed in this one.

The Nats would rally in the 9th, with Curtis Mead and CJ Abrams starting things off. Daylen Lile would get a sac fly to score Mead to make it a one run game with one out. However, Jose Tena and Jorbit Vivas would both strike out to strand Abrams on second.

The duo of Tena and Vivas have been tough to watch lately. Vivas is now 0-23 on the season with runners in scoring position. That is not going to cut it at the big league level. He seems to come up in big spots fairly often, and never delivers.

Tena and Vivas are both out of options, so that could give them some security. However, with the way Abimelec Ortiz, Yohandy Morales and Seaver King are swinging the bat, you have to wonder how much of a leash those guys have.

While this loss left a slightly sour taste in fans mouths, it was a great road trip. The Nats went 4-2 against two first place teams and are still above .500. This is the first time the Nats come back from a road trip over .500 since 2019. That is a crazy stat to think about.

This series against the Padres should be an exciting one. We all know the history between these two teams. These two franchises combined to make one of the biggest trades of the 21st century, and it gave the Nats their two best players. It also just seems like crazy things tend to happen when these teams play. So look out, and get to the ballpark this weekend if you can!

Cincinnati Reds outfielder TJ Friedl got 4 PA against the Philadelphia Phillies on May 18th, and he went 0 for 3 with a K and a sac-fly RBI. In the eight days that followed, he got a grand total of jsut 3 PA, with a sac bunt the only thing to show for it.

That I even called him ‘Cincinnati Reds outfielder’ instead of ‘Cincinnati Reds leadoff man and everyday centerfielder’ should’ve been a tell on where Friedl stands on this roster currently, as well as how quickly he has fallen from the ranks of dependability to merely hanging on to his roster spot.

To date, he’s hitting .176/.255/.257 in 169 PA this season. Among the 182 MLB players who have logged at least 160 PA this season, his 43 wRC+ ranks second worst, while his xwOBA – an expected stat – ranks tied for third worst, too. In other words, he hasn’t just been unlucky, he’s just been plain awful at the plate.

Friedl ranks in the 10th percentile (or, in many cases, much worse) in each of xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, Barrel %, Hard-Hit %, Launch Angle Sweet-Spot %, and Batting Run Value so far in 2026. His sprint speed is down to just the 34th percentile, his arm value at 23rd, and that’s been enough to see manager Terry Francona move him out of center and into left whenever he had the gumption to actually put Friedl into the lineup in the first place so far in 2026.

That gumption is once again there on Wednesday, however, as Friedl will return to the lineup in the series finale against the New York Mets as the Reds look to complete the sweep. TJ will start in CF and bat 9th, the hope being this much time on the pine has helped him hit the reset button as hard as physically possible and that maybe, just maybe, there’s a little something left in the tank for the veteran outfielder.

Andrew Abbott will start for the Reds tonight, Matt McLain gets to ride pine to start, and Spencer Steer will get some run at 2B.

Here’s the full Reds lineup for the 7:10 PM ET start:

Well, after a one day only engagement, the offence has gone back on hiatus. It didn’t end up mattering, though, as a combination of solid work from Kevin Gausman and the bullpen and questionable Marlins base running held them to only one run in spite of racking up 11 hits. The Jays are back within two games of .500 and one in the loss column away from a wildcard, somehow.

The Marlins got one off Kevin Gausman early. Xavier Edwards won a 10 pitch battle in the first at bat of the game, lining Gausman’s 10th pitch for a double. One batter later, Otto Lopez snuck a ground ball single up the middle to bring Edwards home. Four of the next five Marlins struck out to get Gaus out of the first and through the second with no damage.

He got into a jam in the third, walking Edwards and Liam Hicks with one out and giving up a line single to Lopez. a double play got him out of it, but it cost him pitches. The fourth was more trouble, as he hit Connor Norby and gave up a ground ball single to Owen Caissie that moved the lead runner to third, but a strikeout and a pop up got him out of trouble once again. Miami managed two more hits in the fifth, but a double play and a ground out prevented either from scoring. That would be the end of Gausman’s afternoon. It took him 95 pitches to get through five. He allowed only one run, but gave up six hits and a pair of walks, while striking out five. It was a messy outing, but he did enough to leave with the game competitive.

Meanwhile, Eury Perez was effectively wild, getting into deep counts but avoiding much hard contact. Vladimir Guerrero jr. reached on a soft line single in the first, and Andres Gimenez had one in the third, but the Jays also struck out seven times in that interval. Guerrero singled again in the fourth, and Kazuma Okamoto was hit by a pitch, but the Jays could not capitalize. Perez got the hook at that point, having taken 73 pitches to get through four. The Jays couldn’t lay a finger on him, striking out nine times without walking and managing just three soft singles.

They fared a little better against the Marlins’ bullpen. Michael Peterson got the first two batters of the fifth, but then Tyler Heineman worked a 10 pitch walk and Nathan Lukes doubled him home to tie the game at one. Peterson intentionally walked Vlad and was replaced by Andrew Nardi to face Daulton Varsho, who he struck out to preserve the lead.

Mason Fluharty started the sixth. He hit Jakob Marsee, but got a fly out from Connor Norby and then some help when Marsee way overshot the bag stealing second and was easily tagged out. Heriberto Hernandez single to replace the base runner, though, and John Schneider called on Jeff Hoffman, who caught Hernandez stealing third after having successfully stolen second. With one out in the bottom half, Okamoto took his revenge for the HBP by taking Nardi deep to the opposite field for a solo home run, putting Toronto in front 2-1.

Hoffman returned for the seventh. Christopher Morel singled, but it was erased when pinch runner Esteury Ruiz was caught stealing second. He got the next batter swinging. Edwards notched his third hit of the afternoon, but another K got Hoffman through with the lead held. John King worked a clean home half of the inning for the Marlins.

Otto Lopez collected his fourth hit of the afternoon off Louis Varland to begin the eighth. That brought his tally to 75 on the year, leading the league by eight over teammate Xavier Edwards. Kyle Stowers follwoed with a ground ball single of his own. Varland fielded a chopper by the next batter himself and almost threw it away into centre field. Andres Gimenez made a game saving catch to record one out and hold the lead runner at third. He then struck Norby out and got Stowers, the runner on first, hung up halfway to second on a delayed steal for an inning ending double play. Pete Fairbanks set the Jays down in order.

It fell to Tyler Rogers to lock down the one run save. He made it look easy, getting through a 1-2-3 inning on seven pitches.

Jays of the Day: Okamoto (0.18), Lukes (0.13), Gausman (0.14), Hoffman (0.12), Varland (0.13), Rogers (0.16)

Less So: Varsho (-0.13)

It’s off to Baltimore for a four game set beginning tomorrow. Patrick Corbin (2-1, 3.86) will start the opener for the Jays. The Orioles haven’t announced pitchers yet. First pitch is set for 6:35pm ET.

Well. Gavin Williams was great today! Not in the way he normally is, but he pitched to contact and managed to put together 7 great innings of 1-run ball. Something interesting to note with him these last two starts is his pitch usage. Both of his last two starts have been caught by Hedges, and both have featured uncharacteristically high breaking ball-usage. Against the Phillies, he threw nearly 70% curveball/sweeper, and only went to his 4-seam 11% of the time. He instead threw his sinker 25% of the time. His sweeper had a 62% whiff rate in that start. In the 3 starts preceding that, his fastball was getting killed. He re-introduced his cutter which partially helped, but the sweeper/curveball usage drove down the quality of contact allowed on his 4-seam. That pattern continued today. Gavin was 47% curveball/sweeper today, almost 50% of the time the first time through the order. Felt like he didn’t have great feel for either today, which would explain the decreased usage. Nevertheless, Gavin was fantastic today. He provided a start the Guardians bullpen desperately needed after two abhorrent performances from Bibee and Cantillo in the two days prior. To refresh your memory, those two combined for 5 innings and 11 (eleven) earned runs allowed.

Gavin’s only run came off a C.J. Abrams 2-out RBI double in the 3rd on a, well, questionable 0-2 fastball call from Hedges. The offense finally seemed to wake up today, going 10/32 as a unit with 3 walks to 2 strikeouts.

Bazzana was fantastic, going 2/4 with 2 laced doubles to center. He nearly added a homer to that line, but was robbed by James Wood.

DeLauter (hopefully) is waking up, as he went 2/4 with an unlucky lineout to right in the 1st.

The metaphorical floodgates finally opened up for the Guardians in the 5th with this sequence to both score and give the Guardians the lead.

Herrin struck out two in his only inning of work and walked none.

Cade got BABIP’d in the 9th, unfortunately giving up a run. However, he struck out the last two Nationals after that run scored to close out the game.

The Guardians improve to 33-25 as Boston comes to town for a 3-game set this weekend.

It’ll be Bello vs. Cecconi on Friday.

Game Summary

Over the last three games, the Brewers served a stinging reminder to these upstart Cardinals about who is boss in the NL Central and provided a guidepost on how much more this team has to accomplish on the rebuild path.

The Cardinals reach the 1/3 point of the season with a better-than-expected 29-25 win-loss mark but somehow seems like their vibe has been misplaced.

Today, Dustin May brought his best, taking a no-hitter into the eighth. Two hits chased him, then JoJo Romero relieved, but defensive gaffes complicated the inning and let two runs in, resulting in a final score of 2-1.

Pre-game notes

• The standard line-up with Pages catching and RHP on the mound.
• May on the mound for the Cardinals. Patrick on the mound for the Brewers. This will be a pseudo-bullpen game for the Brew Crew. They will start Patrick and ride him as far as they can. Figure 3-5 innings, no more than twice through. Patrick has been very effective in short stints.
• Day off tomorrow, then struggling Cubs comes to town. Blogger Night on Saturday.

The early innings are quiet, with lots of early swings and few walks

The Cardinals go quick to lead out the game. The league is getting Wetherholt out with early-in-the-count fastballs at the top of the zone that he likes to swing at but can’t drive. Lots of pop outs is the consequence. With all the P4 and F9’s he is accumulating, I’m guessing he is trying to jerk/pull these pitches since he experienced some early HR success. He will need to let these go early in the count and put more pressure on the pitcher. The Cardinals put multiple runners on in the 2nd and 3rd but could not cash in.

On the other side, Dustin May came out sharp, benefitting from the getaway day, swing early and swing often approach employed by many. Through three innings he had allowed zero hits and compiled five strikeouts. The only runners to reach were by HBP and a catcher’s interference.

The Cardinals jump on top as May sails

The Brewers are able to carry Patrick through four innings. In the fourth, the Brewers elected to leave him in to pitch to a LH hitter (Torres) with two out and one on (Walker) and Torres drove one into the corner to break the ice with a two-out RBI triple. Pages K’s the strand that runner, but the Cardinals were up 1-0. Patrick ended up striking out the side. The Brewers effectively traded a run for an out. When you are good, you can do that.

May follows up the Cardinal rally with another zero in the fourth, with two more strikeouts. He has been a bit sharper with command and a tick higher with velo today. Tough AB for the Brewers. 54 pitches through indicates his efficiency, which has not been a feature often so far this season.

The dreaded middle innings arrive

The Brewers take Patrick out after 4 IP, replacing with a lefty, Shane Drohan. The Brewers bullpen is good and well rested, so they are in good shape there. The Cardinals waste a double by Wetherholt as the left-left match-up against Burleson was not a good one.

Lately, as the Cardinals try to stretch their starters through six (against better lineups), they continue to suffer the third time through the line-up (TTTTLU) fate. Really, they aren’t losing games here, but they are putting them out of reach. It remains to be seen if they successfully climb the innings mount or are forced to lean more heavily on an under-manned bullpen.

Of course, May defeats any TTTTLU talk by pitching well. What an interesting twist! First Cardinal starter to pitch into the eighth.

The decisive and bitter end

May’s no -no ended with a lead off double in the eighth. A bunt single misplayed by the infield results in first and third with no out. Romero in. He gets a key infield out that freezes the runner and then a K against pinch hitter Vaughn. Left-left matchup against Yelich results in a two-out RBI to tie. Things worsened when Winn boots a grounder, scoring the winning run instead of ending the inning. Ugh.

Winn gets on and steals second in the ninth but the bottom of the line-up is unable to cash in. Final score 2-1. Swept.

Post-Game Notes

• Check out Today on the Farm – Wednesday 5/27 for updates on MiLB action.
• One thing is for certain. The Brewers can pitch.
• Today, some really poor ABs, especially with runners on. Winn and Burleson lead that class.
• The end of this game marks the end of the first third of the season. 54 games down, 108 of them to go (seemingly most of them in August).

Hey, universe! Let Dominic Smith get some starts! Which means, stop making the Braves face lefty starters!

In tonight’s contest, the Braves will be taking aim at a lefty starter for the fourth time in five games. You have to go back to May 4, the start of a streak where the Braves faced four righty starters in a row, to create a span where the Braves have faced more righties than lefties. The kicker? Immediately before that four-game stretch, they had to face five straight lefties. (But, there were six straight righties immediately preceding that.)

So, with Drake Baldwin still out with injury, the Braves are turning the DH slot tonight over to… Jorge Mateo. Now, Mateo isn’t exactly eating gravel down in an alley, as he has a 124 wRC+ that’s the result of massively outhitting his xwOBA. Against lefties, it’s only a 66 wRC+, but he does have a decently-sized platoon split for his career. Actual useful full disclosure:

• Mateo, vs. RHP: .403 wOBA /.325 xwOBA this year in 40 PAs | .268 wOBA / .269 xwOBA in 933 career PAs
• Mateo, vs. LHP: .266 wOBA / .281 xwOBA this year in 24 PAs | .292 wOBA / .295 xwOBA in 542 career PAs.

This will be Mateo’s first time starting at DH since his rookie season in 2020, when he did it all of one time. He’s actually “appeared” at DH a bunch due to pinch-running for slow-footed actual DHes here and there quite a bit, but he’s not really carried for his bat.

So, maybe not a very exciting DH choice, but the Braves have persevered through a lot of unexciting choices to yield exciting games, and exciting results, so far this season.

The Red Sox are using the exact same lineup as yesterday — which to their credit, worked out pretty well for them. They just got outscored.

The six guys in the Atlanta lineup that have faced Connelly Early did so two weekends ago in Atlanta. The other three (Chadwick Tromp, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Mateo) weren’t in that lineup. Early generally pitched pretty well but for allowing dingers to Baldwin and Michael Harris II. The collective result among the starting sextet here was a .248 wOBA / .281 xwOBA in 15 PAs. Meh.

Everyone in the Boston lineup has faced Bryce Elder at least once save Nick Sogard. Some of those PAs came earlier this season, some in years past. Only Willson Contreras and Cedanne Rafaela have hit Elder particularly well: the collective line is a .262 wOBA and .263 xwOBA in 49 PAs, though only Contreras, who hit a game-winning homer off Elder in Atlanta, has more than ten PAs against the right-hander.

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The Houston Astros and Texas Rangers continue their four-game series tonight at Globe Life Field, with first pitch scheduled for 8:05 p.m. ET. 

While Jacob deGrom has had his struggles lately, my Astros vs. Rangers predictions are eyeing him to lead Texas to victory here. 

Find out why in my MLB picks for Wednesday, May 27. 

Who will win Astros vs Rangers today: Rangers moneyline (-150)

The Texas Rangers took Game 2 of the series on Tuesday by a score of 10-7, their second win in the last three meetings with the Houston Astros this season. The hosts turn to Jacob deGrom here, who has been a dominant figure on home soil. 

Across four home outings, the right-hander owns a stellar 1.16 ERA, and he's surrendered just two earned runs across his previous three appearances at Globe Life Field. To put his brilliance in Arlington into perspective, deGrom's ERA is north of six on the road. He's a completely different pitcher in front of the Rangers faithful. 

The Astros, meanwhile, counter with Mike Burrows, who has allowed 11 earned runs and four homers across his last two starts. Overall, Burrows has a 5.75 ERA. 

COVERS INTEL: Opponents have a .383 wOBA against Burrows this season, putting him in the bottom 7% of the big leagues. 

Astros vs Rangers Over/Under pick: Over 7.5 (+105)

This has been a high-scoring matchup in recent memory. Three straight meetings have cashed the Over, with 17 combined runs scored on Tuesday.

DeGrom's form at home is clear, but he has been prone to allowing some runs lately, especially via the long ball, and the Astros hit him well a couple of weeks ago. 

Burrows is incredibly inconsistent, and he's getting hit around the ballpark. While the Texas bullpen has impressed with a 3.14 ERA, the Houston pen is atrocious, with an MLB-worst 5.47 ERA. 

The bats should come out to play tonight, and I expect a lot of the offense to come from the Rangers.

Astros vs Rangers odds

• Moneyline: Astros +133 | Rangers -150
• Run line: Astros +1.5 (-176)  | Rangers -1.5 (+146)
• Over/Under: Over 7.5 (-110) | Under 7.5 (-110)

Astros vs Rangers trend

The Texas Rangers have hit the moneyline in 12 of their last 20 games at home (+3.35 Units / 15% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Astros vs. Rangers.

How to watch Astros vs Rangers and game info

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The San Francisco Giants wrap up this three-game home series against the Arizona Diamondbacks this afternoon.

Taking the mound for the Giants will be right-hander Trevor McDonald, who enters today’s game with a 4.76 ERA, 3.43 FIP, with 21 strikeouts to four walks in 22.2 innings pitched. His last start was in the Giants’ 9-4 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Friday, in which he allowed seven runs on three hits with four strikeouts and a walk in three and two thirds innings.

He’ll be facing off against Diamondbacks right-hander Michael Soroka, who enters today’s game with a 3.27 ERA, 2.93 FIP, with 57 strikeouts to 14 walks in 55 innings pitched. His last start was in the Diamondbacks’ 3-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Friday, in which he allowed one run on four hits with two strikeouts in six innings.

Game #56

Who: San Francisco Giants (22—33) vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (30-24)

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 12:45 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

Maybe Indiana Jones was right about snakes.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have won nine of their last 10 games and climbed into the second wild-card spot in the National League. Their secret? Going 5-0 against the San Francisco Giants in that stretch.

It happened again Tuesday night. Arizona took a 6-2 lead after seven innings after yet another home run from Ketel Marte, who has three homers and 12 RBIs against the Giants in the last nine days. To give you some context, Matt Chapman has one home run and 16 RBIs in the entire season. Two late solo shots from Eric Haase and Willy Adames weren’t enough to bring the Giants back in a 7-5 loss.

The Giants went deep three times in the loss, with Casey Schmitt starting off the scoring with his 12th dinger, matching last season’s career-high for Tuesday’s second baseman. He also drove in Adames with an RBI single for his team-leading 31st RBI. Unfortunately, all three homers came with the bases empty.

Starter Tyler Mahle remained snake-bitten, falling to 1-7 after his second five-inning start and loss to the D-Backs in a week. He pitched better than in his previous start, succumbing to a brutal second-inning rally where he appeared to get lucky at first.

Ryan Waldschmidt’s RBI hit was ruled a ground-rule double after umpires decided the ball was trapped under the wall, despite Harrison Bader seeming to dislodge it quickly. The ruling sent Giant-killer Nolan Arenado back to third, though he and Waldschmidt would score on a groundout and a sacrifice fly. Then Adrian Del Castillo took Mahle deep, ensuring his ERA wouldn’t drop below 6.

The Giants were hitting off Eduardo Rodriguez (5-1), just not enough. Bryce Eldridge hit his fourth career double and got stranded. The 21-year-old also got “Oracle’d” in the 4th when he blasted a ball over 400 feet to right center, only for the wind and the dimensions of the ballpark to leave him with a long out.

Rafael Devers lined into a double play to end the third and after Victor Bericoto’s first major-league hit helped load the bases, Devers struck out to end the 5th. After Devers doubled home Chapman with no one out in the 8th, Juan Morillo got a strikeout, a pop-out, and a groundout to end the rally.

Things got worse when Keaton Winn entered the game for Mahle in the 6th and his defense did not help him out. After a leadoff single, Arenado’s grounder to short turned into a first-and-third situation after Adames’ throwing error. Arenado was given a single, as if his batting average against the Giants needed any help. Winn got a strikeout and two groundouts, but another run scored to make it 4-2.

In the 7th, the Giants forced Marte to hit right-handed, where he had been significantly worse this season before facing Giants’ left-handers. Last week, he hit a walkoff home run off lefty Matt Gage. Tuesday it was Erik Miller who got Ketel’d, giving up a 452-foot blast. Maybe they should just walk him.

The series concludes Wednesday and Marte is in the starting lineup, though Arenado will be out with a tight groin. Hey, we’ve all been there, right fellas?

Arizona is on a tear and so is Marte. If they ride this momentum into the playoffs, it seems clear that Mahle has earned at least a partial playoff share, while the Giants have simply earned a one-month reprieve from the snake pit.

Philadelphia Phillies (28-27) at San Diego Padres (31-23), May 27, 2026, 1:10 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Petco Park – San Diego, Calif.

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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What is there to say about Shohei Ohtani, the pitcher, that hasn’t already been brought up many times? In the season marked by some periods of frustration with the bat, at least early on, Ohtani has managed to exceed even the loftiest expectations of his ability on the mound—so much so that the five scoreless innings he delivered last time out can be considered one of his more pedestrian outings. In fact, eight starts into the season, Ohtani knows not the meaning of a bad or even mediocre pitching performance.

The most earned runs Ohtani has allowed were the two at the beginning of the month against Houston, a game in which he conceded a couple of solo shots and was let down by the offense in a 2-1 defeat. With these teams coming off a home run party, as there were eight of them in the last game—five for the Dodgers and three for the Rockies—Ohtani has yet to allow a home run at Dodger Stadium. Those two versus the Astros were the only ones hit against him in 2026.

At the heart of that offensive explosion last night, Mookie Betts is the name to watch, trying to gain some momentum on what has been a trying season up to this point. Having Betts even remotely near his best level would go a long way in making this already great Dodgers offense into the fear-inducing juggernaut most projected when they signed Kyle Tucker.

Wednesday’s game info

• Teams: Dodgers vs. Rockies
• Ballpark: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
• Start time: 7:10 p.m. PT
• TV: SportsNet LA
• Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)

The D-backs reach the one-third mark of the season at 30-24, six games above .500. It’s worth noting that the last two times Arizona had thirty wins or more through this point, were in 2017 and 2023. The Diamondbacks made the post-season both times. On the other hand… Of the four previous times Arizona were exactly at their current record of 30-24, they only made the playoffs once (2011), missing out on the other three occasions (2005, 2008 and 2013). Of course, the postseason was smaller in those days. But the D-backs wouldn’t have made it under the current, expanded format either, since the best record there was 82-80. Work still to be done.

Can’t really complain about the past stretch though. This is the final game of thirteen against the Giants and Rockies, and the Diamondbacks have gone a sterling 10-2 going into play today. What a difference two weeks makes. After we got walked off in Texas, Arizona were 20-22, and the tenth-best record in the NL. They were four games back of the last wild-card spot (Cardinals), with the Pirates, Reds and Nationals all also sitting ahead of us. Now? Sole possession of the second wild-card spot, and one game back of the Padres for the first. Goes to show how quickly things can change. Just ask the Cubs, who’ve gone from the 2nd-best record in the league to 8th.

We have pretty much used up all our strength of schedule advantage though. Baseball Reference currently has our SoS (Strength of Schedule) at 0.0. So it’s important to make hay where we can, both here and perhaps on against the Mariners over the weekend. The D-backs are now 22-8 against teams with losing records, which is the best mark in the National League, and trails only our expansion siblings in Tampa (20-6) overall. Just don’t look at their record against teams at or above .500… Oh, alright: the Diamondbacks are 8-16 there, including 1-4 against the Dodgers and Padres in the division. They’ll probably need to do better going forward.