Dropping a series in the middle of a playoff push is never a fun time, but after the Dbacks did so while only putting up 1 run and seeing possibly the weakest stretch of offense we’ve gotten out of the snakes in 2026 had fans hoping that going on a roadtrip would be the juice this team needed to get back on track in the batter’s box. Thankfully the Diamondbacks would go from facing one of the hottest teams in baseball in the Philadelphia Phillies to a matchup against the Houston Astros, who are a division leading squad but doing so in a very weak division. The boys in Sedona red have historically struggled in Daikin (formerly Minute Maid Park) as they haven’t won a series in Houston since 2012, when the Astros were still a part of the NL Central, but they would look to their 2 best starters to do their part in securing a series victory in the Lone Star State.
Offense Main-Stays Dead
Friday night’s series opener was sadly more of the same that we’ve seen from this Diamondbacks offense as they would still struggle in every run scoring opportunity that was presented to them (1 for their last 27 dating back to Saturday’s second game of the doubleheader), with their lone run being thanks to a Gabriel Moreno solo homerun.
It wasn’t all bad thankfully as Merrill Kelly continued to show signs of improvement going 6 innings without allowing a single walk (his first start without a walk in over 3 months) in a losing effort. Brandon, Gabe and I all agreed that while the mainstay has been up and down for most of the 2026 season with alternating months of good and bad, seeing him post a 2.89 ERA over his last 3 starts has us hoping that we’ll get the best of Merrill for the final stretch and potentially into October.
KETEL YEAH!
Looking to bounce back from the 3-1 loss on Friday night, the DIamondbacks would look to Big Game Brandon to continue his impressive stretch and limit the Astros offense enough to give the offense some kind of chance to breakthrough and he did just that, going into the 7th and allowing just 3 earned runs and racking up 13 whiffs. The offense would finally wake up as they finally realized that they are indeed allowed to get hits with runners in scoring position, going 4 for 10 with one of them being a Lars Nootbar RBI double in the 7th and a Gabriel Moreno go ahead single in extras. Extras might not have been a possibility without second baseman Ketel Marte as he would come up with his biggest hit since returning from the IL with a game tying blast in the 8th on a pitch that was well below the zone.
The three of us all agreed that Ketel’s homerun in that situation was not only a game changer but a vibe changing shot as it seemed like that was the kind of boost that the lineup needed for the last week or so and they were able to finally get that big hit when they needed it most.
Ace-uardo Dub-riguez
Sunday’s rubber match would be another game where the snakes would rely on their pitching to do a lot of the heavy lifting as they were only able to muster up 3 runs, but thankfully those 3 would be all they needed as they had the Ace-uardo Dub-riguez on the bump. Rodriguez’s day got off to a rough start with a Yordan Alvarez solo shot in the first, but that would be all that the Astros would score off of him as he would settle in to go 6 strong innings and get 19 whiffs, 9 of which came on his disgusting changeup.
The gameplan for teams this year when facing Rodriguez seems to be jumping him early and often, but if they don’t get to him early then good luck the rest of the way as Eduardo through innings 2-8 has an ERA of 1.88. Brandon suggests that the struggles early on could simply be Rodriguez adjusting from his pregame warmups in the bullpen to the actual mound, and the 6.11 ERA for Eduardo in the 1st inning this year could definitely back that idea up.
While AceRod definitely deserves a lot of love for him continuing his winning ways, Gabe also wanted to make sure the bullpen would get their share of the credit as they would end this series going a combined 8.2 IP with 5 hits, 1 earned run, 0 walks and 14 strikeouts, saying that for the first time in the Mike Hazen era he feels confident in any of the arms that are called upon for late game and high leverage situations.
“And We’ll Never Be Royals”
The fellas and I wrapped up the pod looking ahead at the next series on the roadtrip as the Diamondbacks would visit Kauffman Stadium and take on Bobby Witt Jr. the Kansas City Royals. While the Royals haven’t had the year they or their fans expected, their pitching has been very solid as of late as Gabe mentions both Michael Wacha and Noah Cameron, 2 of the probable starters for the Royals in this upcoming series, have both been pitching very well over their last 7 and each have an ERA below 3 in that time. While on the topic of pitching, multiple reports suggest that Diamondbacks would be activating starter Corbin Burnes for his 2026 debut and his first outing since he had to undergo the Tommy John surgery that ended his 2025 season shorter than most hoped.
While Gabe had his eyes focused on the Royals starters, Brandon kept his focus on Royals superstar and face of the franchise in Bobby Witt Jr, as he is far and away the most dangerous bat in the Royals lineup. Whatever the Diamondbacks pitching staff has done to quiet the bats of guys like Pete Crow-Armstrong and Yordan Alvarez they would need to keep that same mojo going into this series and let anyone not wearing #7 do their damage against the Snakes.
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