The Diamondbacks entered their 81st and final home game of the season on Sunday, Sept. 20, against the Yankees, with a 44-36 record at Chase Field.
"It’s gone pretty quickly,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “I’m proud of the way we’ve played baseball, and one of the things we talk about at the beginning of the year is to protect our territory, protect our home field. It’s ours. I feel like our home record indicates that these guys have been very engaged and played good baseball in front of the home crowd. We’re proud of that.”
Lovullo admitted that some losses at home this season have had him thinking about the little things that could have been done to win more games.
“But overall, I love what we do when we walk into this building,”
he said.
—Jose M. Romero
Diamondbacks in contention down stretch
The past four seasons have seen the Lovullo-led Diamondbacks in postseason contention each year, starting with a wild-card berth in 2023 that led to a trip to the World Series.
In 2024 the Diamondbacks fell one win short of a wild card, and last year they went to San Diego for the final series of the regular season still in contention.
This year the Diamondbacks enter the final week of the season still mathematically alive for the postseason.
“We’re all judged by wins and losses and getting to the big dance,” Lovullo said. “If you’re going to judge what happens here based off that, yeah, I know that we’ve only been to the playoffs a couple of times here in this organization.
"The fact that we’ve won a lot of baseball games over the past 10 years and put ourselves in a good position year after year after year to get the big dance, I’m proud of that.”
Questions about Lovullo’s future as Diamondbacks manager have come up again in recent days, with the team facing a third straight season of missing the postseason.
“But if you looking at the full body of work, this state should be proud of what these players do and what they accomplish every single day,” Lovullo said.
“We’ve won games. But the fact that it’s come down to the last weekend is a little bit of a challenge and we wish it was different but it’s not, and we live in that space. … There’s small windows for us to get in there and succeed, and we do.”
—Jose M. Romero
Yankees at Diamondbacks, 1:10 p.m., Cox, Ch. 34
Diamondbacks RHP Corbin Burnes (0-0, 5.87) vs. Yankees RHP Will Warren (10-6, 3.89).
At Chase Field: Burnes tossed three scoreless innings against the Royals in his first start back, but he was hit hard by the Marlins in his second outing, giving up five runs in 4 2/3 innings last week at Chase Field. … Burnes elicited a healthy number of whiffs (14) against the Marlins, though his cutter velocity remained in the 92.5 mph range, down about 1.5 mph from last year pre-Tommy John surgery. … Burnes faced the Yankees last season at Yankee Stadium in his first start with the Diamondbacks, giving up four runs (two earned) in 4 1/3 innings. … Warren, in his second full season in the Yankees’ rotation, has settled in as a decent back-end starter. He has pitched into the sixth inning in only half of his 30 starts but has given up more than three earned runs only six times. … He faced the Diamondbacks last season – matching up, in fact, with Burnes – and gave up two runs on one hit and four walks in five innings.
Coming up
Monday, Sept. 21: Off.
Tuesday, Sept. 22: At Colorado, 5:40 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Michael Soroka (8-5, 3.45) vs. Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (4-10, 6.38).
Wednesday, Sept. 23: At Colorado, 5:40 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Merrill Kelly (9-14, 5.00) vs. Rockies RHP Mason Adams (0-1, 5.09).
Thursday, Sept. 24: At Colorado, 12:10 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (15-6, 2.62) vs. Rockies RHP Tanner Gordon (1-5, 6.01).
(This story has been updated to add information.)
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Yankees at Diamondbacks live updates. Final home game arrives
