Remember when we were told the offense was fine? Good times.
The Diamondbacks come into this game with a better record than only five teams in the majors. While there is still a lot of time left in the season, the reality is that Arizona have simply not played like a playoff team, never mind the reigning National League champions. Even objective measures like Fangraphs post-season odds have taken a hit, with the team’s chances cut down by nearly twenty percent from Opening Day (46.8% then, to 27.2% now). They’ve simply been non-competitive against better teams. The D-backs have gone 4-11 against opponents at or above .500: the Rockies and White Sox are the only sides with fewer such victories.
It is now going to be at least three weeks since the team so much as won consecutive games. The last time was April 13/14, when the Diamondbacks beat the Cardinals 4-2 on Saturday and 5-0 on Sunday. After that point, they’ve gone 6-11: the six victories have been by margins of 1, 1, 1, 2, 13 and 16 runs, so I can’t even. Despite this, attendance at Chase has been significantly up, no doubt buoyed by 2023’s success. At 32.018, it’s up more than eleven thousand over last year, a 53% increase – no other team is even at plus five thousand, with overall attendance basically flat (up forty-one per game). But there’s clearly discontent, and we all know how fragile fan sentiment in this state can be.