Of all the seasons in Diamondbacks’ history, this was certainly one of them. Given the mediocrity of the final record, I think it’s surprising how many of the games might stick around – just not for the right reasons. We score ten runs in an inning! And lose… A player hits four home-runs in a game! And we lose… Our starting pitcher tosses nine shutout innings! [All together now] And we lose… Yeah: I am genuinely tempted to include a bonus poll in this category, to choose a LOSS of the year. Because,
boy, we certainly had some doozies this year, which deserve to go down on Arizona’s permanent record.
However, we will only be including the wins in the main category, which gives us eighty possible candidates. Below, I’ve attempted to fish out some of the ones which stood out in a positive manner, for one reason or another. Links go to the SnakePit recap for each contest. But I am certainly open to suggestions for others which I may have missed. The usual procedure will apply:
- Go to the comments section.
- If your choice is already mentioned there, give it a “rec”.
- If your choice is NOT mentioned, put in a brief summary of the performance in question and leave that as a new comment.
- The MLB Video Search tool might be very helpful in bolstering your case.
- Duplicate nominations will get deleted.
- On Wednesday, I’ll tally up the recs, and use those as a guide towards a list of five or so nominees.
Possible candidates
- March 30: Diamondbacks 10, Cubs 6: Holy Comeback Sauce, Batman! – eight-run eighth spurs win
- April 9: Diamondbacks 9, Orioles 0: Shutout Series Win – Grounds for early optimism
- April 12: Diamondbacks 5, Cubs 4: What a Finish! – Shutout until the ninth, still win
- April 22: Diamondbacks 5, Rays 1: Battle of the Expansion Franchises – Season-high five above .500
- May 4: Diamondbacks 11, Phillies 9: And… exhale – Blow a 7-1 lead, win anyway
- June 5: Diamondbacks 11, Braves 10: It’s alive! IT’S ALIVE!!! – Back from the dead, 0.1% WP
- June 9: Diamondbacks 8, Mariners 4: It was an adventure! – Blow 4-0 lead in the ninth, walk-off slam
- June 20: Diamondbacks 14, Rockies 8: All the Runs – biggest offensive game
- June 23: Diamondbacks 10, White Sox 0: Another of Those “Pyrrhic” Thingies – biggest margin
- July 19: Diamondbacks 10, Cardinals 1: Ryno and the Batsmen
- July 25: Diamondbacks 1, Pirates 0: Yo Ho, Yo Ho! – an 11-inning squeaker
- August 10: Diamondbacks 13, Rockies 6: “You Might As Well Sweep”
- August 23: D-backs 10, Reds 1: What Have You Done with Our Bullpen?!?? – bullpen game done right
- September 23: Diamondbacks 5, Dodgers 4: Cold Like the Frog! – Walk-off vs. LA, playoff hopes rise
Dear lord, revisiting some of those was… Yeah, I think I am probably going to need a lie-down in a dark room after reading those recaps. The team truly was an agent of chaos this year, wasn’t it?
