I hope we all enjoyed our two-week vacation, enjoying the lightest of thrills resulting from the D-backs going 11-2 against the Rockies and Giants. Things will likely be a bit tougher now, facing the division leading Mariners, who just came off a three-game sweep of the [THIS SPACE FOR RENT] Athletics. However, I’d be more impressed if the Mariners weren’t still actually below .500, despite being on top of the AL West. It is arguably the most competitive division in the game so far, with just 2.5
games covering the top four. The NL Central is the only other division where you need less than double digits for that, and even they are still at a five-game spread.
The D-backs come in, having used only eighteen pitchers to this point. No team in the majors has needed fewer arms. The rotation has been particularly stable, with just the late arrival of Merrill Kelly disrupting things, bumping Brandon Pfaadt to the bullpen. The Cleveland Guardians are the only more stable team than Arizona, having used the same five guys since Opening Day. At the other end, the Astros are already up to thirteen different starting pitchers. Out of the bullpen, the Diamondbacks have been very stable too: thirteen relievers used is just one man above the MLB low to date, in San Diego and St. Louis.
A good series here could see the D-backs’ ERA for the year drop below four – it’s currently at 4.02. Been a while: to find the last time Arizona had a sub-four ERA through 55 games, you need to got back to 2018, when it was 3.40 to this point in the season. We’d used twenty pitchers, and only one – Kris Medlen, in a single appearance – had an ERA of five or worse. Patrick Corbin anchored the rotation in the way E-Rod is doing this year, having made twelve starts with a sub-three ERA. Out of the bullpen, T.J. McFarland, Yoshihisa Hirano, Brad Boxberger and Andrew Chafin, had thrown 19-35.1 innings, all with sub-two ERAs. Those were the days…
Join the conversation!
Sign up for a user account and get:
- Fewer ads
- Create community posts
- Comment on articles, community posts
- Rec comments, community posts
- New, improved notifications system!
