Been a while since Arizona’s last visit to Petco. 117 games, in fact.
If it seems like a long time since we’ve seen San Diego… that’s because it is. I’d quite forgotten that we had already played them this season. It’s actually the Giants, whom the D-backs have yet to see this year (and won’t until July). But it has been a while for Arizona to face San Diego. You have to go back 65 games, to the opening series of the season, when the D-backs won the first game of the 2022 campaign with a walk-off home-run from Seth Beer (remember him?). They then got slapped in the next three, being outscored by a margin of 18-7 there, to fall back to where they’ve spent most of the season – moderately, though not disastrously, below .500.
As Jack mentioned in the preview, it seems virtually certain they’ll have to do it without their MVP so far, Manny Machado, though his injury yesterday could definitely have been a good deal worse. After sweeping the Cubs in a four-game set at Wrigley, they briefly took over the lead in the NL West, but getting swept in Coors dropped them back into second place. It will be interesting to see if the Padres can avoid the implosion which they suffered last season, where they were 49-33 at the end of June, only for that to be their final calendar month with a winning record, They had a 30-50 record the rest of the way – the same as the Diamondbacks – and finished below .500, a record that got manager Jayce Tingler his papers.
Not having seen the Padres in more than two months, I’m not sure if they are annoying as they were last season. Do they still do that ludicrous swag chain thing? Or has that been consigned to the IL, along with Machado and Fernando Tatis? I could not tell you. I hope we manage to avoid finding out this evening. The good news is, you will be spared a third consecutive recap from me, with Turambar stepping back up to the plate, so all is good there. The bad news is, I have probably cursed Zach Davies, by picking him up for my fantasy baseball team (whose name will shortly be changed to The Walking Dead, in honor of their injured list). So: apologies in advance…