It's All Fun and Games Until the Dodgers Show Up

The Diamondbacks were having a pretty nice season back there. Goldschmidt was surging, Greinke and Corbin were pitching well, the bench worked, and David Peralta was continuing his reign at the top of the lineup.

And then a funny thing happened. Well, aside from the D-Backs dropping a week's worth of games every once in a while. The other thing. The Dodgers. Out of nowhere, they got healthy, and they started climbing back to first place. And now that the season's back on, the Dodgers are trying to keep a hold on 1st place.

I'd say that the Diamondbacks can challenge them, but they're way too inconsistent. They've blown too many big games, and lost too many division leads. Their starting catcher, J.R. Murphy, is a last-minute choice, as their other options, including Alex Avila and Jeff Mathis, have been very disappointing. They've only won six games in July so far. The once promising trio of Ahmed, Owings and Lamb have come up short. And Shelby Miller, ONCE AGAIN, has proven how ineffective he's become since joining the Diamondbacks. Meanwhile, the Dodgers now have Manny Machado, they have their whole rotation back, and...they're only going one direction, and that's up.

So, unless the D-Backs can turn the deficit around somehow, they may be headed for second place at best. And remember, this is a division where the Giants and Rockies are surprisingly close behind, so no lead can be too impenetrable here.

Coming Tonight: He was injured all of last year. And then, this year, he finally came back and started playing like his old self, even if this meant less of a chance at a ring.