The schedule is not favorable to us in the early going this week.
If the Diamondbacks are to avoid being sellers at the trade deadline next week, it’s not just a question of needing to win. They also need the teams ahead of them to lose, and that has been a bit of a mixed bag. Sure, the D-backs won all three of their games over the weekend, while the Giants and (obviously) the Cardinals were swept. But the Padres and Reds, two of the teams ahead of the Diamondbacks in the standings, also won two out of three, so not much ground was made up there. [For now, I’m not looking further up in the standings than the third wild-card spot. The Mets are 1.5 games further ahead of the Padres, and are half a game back of the Phillies in the East]
So, this week will definitely be a severe case of scoreboard watching between the five teams in question. Here’s what they have on the schedule:
- Padres: @ Marlins
- Reds: @ Nationals
- Giants @ Braves
- Cardinals @ Rockies
- D-backs vs. Astros
That is certainly not promising for us. While the other four teams are on the road, they are all playing teams with worse records – the 46-52 Marlins being the best of the bunch. They are the 11th-ranled team by record in the National League. Arizona are at home to start this crucial stretch, but the Astros are 57-42, with the third-best record in the American League. To make up ground, we need to do better than the teams above us: given who everyone is playing, that’s going to be a tough challenge. In the early games, the results are mixed so far. At time of writing, San Diego are up on Miami, but Cincinnati are trailing, and San Francisco are well behind. Definitely something to monitor as we go on.