Arizona Diamondbacks: Another Year of Disappointment?
Through 40 games, the Arizona Diamondbacks have not lived up to what was expected of them. Should we be concerned?
When it rains for the Arizona Diamondbacks, it pours.
The Dbacks came into Sunday’s contest against the San Francisco Giants trying to avoid the four game sweep and a fifth straight loss.
The Giants struck first in the third inning, courtesy of a Trevor Brown solo blast to left field. 1-0, Giants. The Diamondbacks answered the next inning when America’s First Baseman brought in Jake Lamb via sacrifice fly. The Good Guys tie it, 1-1.
The next scoring action took place in the top of the ninth inning, when Hunter Pence scored off the bat of a Brandon Crawford single to right. Heading to the bottom of the ninth, down 2-1.
This is where the game becomes interesting.
The Diamondbacks had runners on the corner with one out in the bottom half of the ninth. Rickie Weeks was the batter, and found himself in a 1-2 count. He slapped Santiago Casilla‘s 94 MPH fastball to Joe Panik at second. Panik fielded, flipped to Crawford, and Crawford relayed to first baseman, Brandon Belt.
What looked like it would be a game-ending double play was stalled for just a moment, as the first base umpired signaled that Weeks was safe, and ruled that Belt had pulled his foot trying to save Crawford’s errant throw.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy immediately came out of the dugout, wanted the play to be reviewed, and the headsets came on.
After the review, it was evident that Crawford managed to tip-toe across the bag to get the out, and yes, Belt held his foot on the bag just long enough to get the out. 2-1, Giants win. Game over. Giants swept the Dbacks, handing them their fifth straight loss.
Matt Cain shut down the Diamondback offense, only allowing the one run over seven hits through seven innings. Cain walked two and punched out five. Rubby De La Rosa matched Cain’s brilliant outing, laboring through 6.2 innings of one-hit ball. De La Rosa walked four men and struck out seven.
The lack of runs the Diamondbacks scored in Sunday’s finale has been a common theme lately. The club is averaging 2.8 runs per game over the last five contests.
The Dbacks have stumbled into fifth place in the NL West. Not only does being in last place really stink, what makes it worse is the fact that their division is the weakest in all of baseball. The first place Giants are only four games above the .500 mark. Every other first place team is at least six games above .500. How’s that for disappointing?
They were one of the best offenses in all of baseball last season, and through 40 games so far in 2016, the Diamondbacks sit at an unimpressive 17-23. Last year at the May 15 mark, they were 15-19.
All GM Dave Stewart did this off-season was bring in three all-star caliber players in Shelby Miller, Zack Greinke, and Jean Segura.
Miller is 1-4 with a 6.94 ERA. He gives up an average of 20 HR per 162 game season, and through eight starts, has already surrendered eight long balls. Not to mention, he’s only been victorious once this season.
Greinke is 3-3 with a 5.26 ERA. He’s on pace to record 187 strikeouts, which would be his lowest K’s tallied since the 2013 season when he was a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Segura is still an All-Star. He comes in hitting a sizzling .331 with five big flies and nineteen runs driven in. Stewart constructed a team that’s built to win, and they’ve done just the opposite of that. On paper, the talent is certainly there. But when it’s comes to ballgames, they fail to be consistent.
They opened the season in April with four straight defeats, won five straight later in the month, dropped six going into May, and followed that with five straight W’s. That, shockingly enough, has been wasted by the five game skid they’re currently on.
Nearly seven weeks into the season and the Diamondbacks have already put together a few lengthy streaks; some good, some bad.
Next: Giants Sweep Diamondbacks in Four-Game Series
It may be early in the season, but the Diamondbacks have displayed alarming patterns. The lack of consistency should raise some concern, and if they fail to win at a steady pace, they could tumble down into the abyss known as the NL West.