Diamondbacks Notes: August 28, 2008
* CALL TO THE BULLPEN - The fine folks at DBN (some of us, anyway) have been on a little holiday. If by holiday you get us to mean staying late at work and not writing too much about baseball. The notion being that it's a big job to write a whole website everyday. Which is why we're calling for some assistance -- a bullpen, if you will. DBN needs correspondents to divvy up the daily duties of chronicling the mighty Arizona Diamondbacks We don't have a red telephone, but you can send us an email We would be relieved.
* NO, REALLY - Speaking of needing someone to get us out of a jam ... the Diamondbacks pitching staff is having a damn hard time preventing opponents from scoring these days. After a two week stretch during which they won nine of twelve games, Arizona opened the final full week of August with a four game losing streak. If losing a weekend series to the reeling Marlins was not enough, a road set against last-place San Diego turned ugly and resulted in a three-game sweep. The Padres entered the series 20 games out in the NL West and 24 behind the divison-leading Diamondbacks. But the Friars didn't show the respect due their betters, rallying for a pair of wins against the Arizona pen after Dan Haren and Randy Johnson had neatly set down the San Diego batters in the early innings. Sandwiched in between was an absolute clunker by Brandon Webb. Even Cy Young Award favorites are entitled to a bad day -- you just hate to see a blemish on an otherwise stellar record for the season. Get it out of your systems now, boys. The games that count the most are nearly here.
* DODGER BLUES - While our typically inoffensive LoCal neighbors made up some ground in the standings, the second-place Dodgers were only running on a treadmill. It's not often that a club can lose six of ten games and increase it's division lead, as the Snakes have done. Los Angeles is 2-8 during the same period and have lost six games in a row to fall three back of Arizona in the division. Whatever magic Manny Ramirez brought with him to LA, it seems to have worn off, as the Dodgers' offense has averaged just 2.6 runs per game over that span. After being swept on the road in Philadelphia -- the Phillies revenge for suffering the same fate as visitors to Chavez Ravine -- Joe Torre's boys will try to beat Washington and avoid back-to-back winless series. Clayton Kershaw will challenge John Lannan to a face-off of lanky lefties in Thursday's finale with the Nationals.
* RESISTIBLE FORCE V. MOVEABLE OBJECT - So the two unsteady clubs atop the NL West will meet for the last time at Chase Field this weekend. A Thursday off-day will allow the Diamondbacks to skip the recently excellent Yusmeiro Petit and throw Doug Davis on five days rest in Friday's opener against Hiroki Kuroda. The weekend proper will feature two must-see pitching match-ups -- Dan Haren v. Chad Bllingsley on Saturday, then dueling sinkerballers Brandon Webb and Derek Lowe on Sunday.
* GET WELL SOON - Justin Upton is purportedly ready to be activated from the DL for Friday's game. But his bat has cooled after a hot start to his rehab assignment and his strikeout rate (23 K in 56 AB) is unconscionably high if he's not hitting for power on an Adam Dunn-level. Upton will need to get locked in quickly to ensure regular at-bats given the logam in the OF and and at 1B. He went 2-for-5 with whiff and a run scored while committing his second error in RF during Tucson's 5-4 loss at Colorado Springs on Wednesday night.
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Going Nowhere Fast
The DBacks had a chance to put the Dodgers further back their rear view mirror before they hooked-up for 3 games this weekend. Bullpen struggles have cost the team a solid 3 games in the standings over the last 10 games. Where we could have gone into the weekend with a nice cushion, instead we only hold a three game lead. This will undoubtedly add more pressure on the young team to end the success the Dodgers have at Chase Field the last few years. We have to hope Haren and Webb lock things down after being hit around the last couple starts.