Being able to leave Kansas City with a big series win but unfortunately missing out on an opportunity to get the Diamondbacks first sweep since July 10-12 against the Dodgers, the Dbacks came back to Phoenix to start their final homestand of 2026 against another team who is also still in the fight for a chance to play October in the Texas Rangers.
Only 0.5 games back of the Padres with 15 games left to play, the time to start sweeping teams instead of just winning the series is now, as the Snakes have to stop relying on other teams to help them out in the race and start to focus on taking care of their own business when it really matters.
Fixin’ To Score Some Runs
After seeing the offense go through the last week or so with an offense that has been borderline non-existent, Saturdays 9 run outburst was a nice change of pace as the Dbacks would actually come through in clutch situations, going 4 for 6 with runners in scoring position and keeping their foot on the gas pedal and not letting up with just a 4-1 lead after 5 innings.
Brandon and I discussed that it was indeed nice to see them breakout like this, we also questioned why they still seem to go nearly half of every game with a seemingly lifeless approach at the dish before they do all their scoring in one inning and then disappear from then on. We asked ourselves if this is something that is more so on the players, as they are the ones that have to actually perform when it matters, or if hitting coach Joe Mather and the assistant hitting coaches are the ones to look at for the gameplan they are giving these hitters night in and night out.
What the Heel Do You Mean He Was Safe?
After getting an early 1-0 lead in the second innings thanks to a Tim Tawa triple followed by a Pavin Smith RBI single (He’s still not good, I don’t care if he finally came through this one time with a runner in scoring position) the Dbacks looked to be in the driver seat as Big Game Brandon Pfaadt was cruising through 4 innings, looking like he could go well into the late innings of Saturday night’s ball game. Sadly a big 6 run 5th inning from the Rangers would take that hope and spit on it right in front of us as that was all the Rangers would need to score for the rest of the night to hang onto the win.
The big controversy from this game however came during that 6 run inning, where the Diamondbacks were denied a potential inning ending double play as Corey Seager was called safe at 1st base due to Pfaadt’s foot coming off the bag. Torey Lovullo decided to challenge that call and the replays that were shown to the fans made it appear that Pfaadt’s heel was on the bag, but the replay officials in New York decided there wasn’t sufficient evidence to overrule the original call and Seager remained safe at 1st. That turned what could have been a 2-1 deficit going into the bottom of the 5th into the Rangers rallying with 2 outs and putting up 4 more runs.
Brandon and I were both in agreement that this was indeed a big momentum swing, it wouldn’t have been as big of a deal if the inning ended with a 3-1 Rangers lead or even a 4-1 lead, but with the way the offense has been swinging it as of late it felt like that sucked all the life and momentum out of the offense and they couldn’t seem to recover and make a comeback.
Death By Errors (And Corey Seager)
In need of a big series win in Sunday’s rubber match the Snakes would have their ace of the 2026 season on the bump as they would need AceRod to do his AceRod things but Corey Seager would decide tro turn back the clock to the 2023 Fall Classic and get the Rangers an early 2-0 lead. Rodriguez would bounce back and settle in a bit with a Gabriel Moreno solo shot cutting the Rangers lead in half going into the 5th.
Looking for a big shutdown inning and getting the offense back in the dugout and ready to get to work again, the Diamondbacks defense picked the worst time to commit 2 very costly errors when they can’t afford any kind of sloppiness down the stretch, with Nolan Arenado botching a grounder that he makes probably 99% of the time and Lars Nootbar getting caught in between wanting to layout for a line drive and letting it one hop to him, thus leading to 2 runners coming around to score.
Brandon and I talked about how those 2 big errors that lead to 3 unearned runs on Eduardo’s statline in the 5th ended up being the deciding factor in Sunday’s crushing defeat as the Dbacks would drop this one by just 1 run. Yes it is a shoulda/coulda/woulda situation, but in a must win game like this one those errors are just something that cannot happen if this team wants to actually catch and overtake the Padres for the final wild card spot.
Time To Reel In A Sweep
Dropping this series while the Padres actually took care of their own business and swept the Giants have the Diamondbacks 2.5 games back and going into a 3 game series against the Marlins, who just took 2 of 3 from the Dodgers and who also swept the Snakes in their earlier series in Miami this year. With the Diamondbacks being more than a month removed from their last series sweep, we both agreed that they are due and due in a big way for another sweep. A 2.5 game deficit isn’t that big of a gap to make up but with how the Padres have been playing as of late (winners of 7 straight) it feels like every game going forwards is a must win if the snakes want to have any hopes in making it into the dance in October and a anything less than either a series win or even a sweep of the Marlins could be the final nail in the coffin for the Diamondbacks playoff hopes in 2026.
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