Ahead By a Century

 

The NL Wild Card race, at the moment, comes down to who will nab the last spot, be it one of the NL East challengers or a competitor from the Central scrum. The top two seem to be set pretty in stone, covered by the Padres and Diamondbacks, both being red hot at the moment and so far ahead of anybody else that it seems like a foregone conclusion at this point. In fact, it remains to be seen whether of them will challenge the Dodgers for the division. 

Which means we're going into a playoff race in the NL West where, even if the outcome has been decided, there is still tension in who ends up where, and how. Could somebody dethrone LA? Could it somehow be the Diamondbacks, catching the same tailwinds they caught last year?

For a lot of this year, the D-Backs were essentially defined by Ketel Marte and Christian Walker. Then Walker got hurt, a bunch of people were activated and things evened out. Geraldo Perdomo has been back for a month and a half, and he's making up for lost time by hitting .281 and playing excellent defense. Zac Gallen missed his month of time and is still 9-5 with some vintage Gallen excellence. Merrill Kelly's first start back went pretty well, and he should be rolling again in no time. Even Eddie Rodriguez is FINALLY back and performing well enough in his first two starts, only giving up 3 runs in each. It feels like a large portion of this team has finally been restored.

Like, going into this year we foresaw a rotation of Gallen-Kelly-Montgomery-Rodriguez-Pfaadt, and now after FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS OF SEASON, we FINALLY have it. It took playing Ryne Nelson as a pen guy, but we actually have the five guys that people came to see performing at a high level. Montgomery's not at his 2023 form, but pretty much everybody else is pitching like they were supposed to. Pfaadt is honestly the revelation- he's the only one to make 24 starts, and he's kept his ERA at 3.50 and has 135 Ks. They needed him to become a consistent guy, especially considering the other 2023 pitching rookie that ruled the postseason has been blackballed due to sports betting. 

And additionally, people like Eugenio Suarez, Jake McCarthy, flamethrowing Justin Martinez, rookie Adrian Del Castillo, and the apparently unstoppable Josh Bell, are fueling this team's come-up. Nabbing Bell was a move I didn't think much of at the time, but he's not only been a great fill-in for Christian Walker but an excellent power bat in his own right, hitting .283 with 9 RBIs and 4 homers. Plus, now Corbin Carroll's finally heating up. In August alone he has a .261 average and a .933 OPS, with 12 hits, 7 RBIs and 3 homers. This is the production the team was waiting for, and hopefully he can build back to his 2023 supremacy.

The bottom line is...this D-Backs team looks just as good as it did in the thick of the 2023 postseason, only now it has better depth and more great starters. If this team stays at this pace...we all could be in trouble.

Coming Tonight: I'm still kinda surprised he stuck around after July, but evidently the Rays still have a plan for him.