Come on! We just played them…
It was just 6 days ago that I wrote Series Preview #47, which was our away series against the San Francisco Giants. I wrote that the Giants somewhat had given up on their season, but were propelled into contention over the past few weeks because of a hot offence.
Though unlikely to be sustainable, the Giants continued their hot hitting streak against Arizona, outslugging the Diamondbacks 19-13 and taking the series 2-1.
After beating the Snakes, the Giants had their hopes fixed on creating some damage
against the Dodgers. They sent both Webb and Ray to the mound, but the results were not as hoped for: the Giants allowed 24 runs. They also scored 14 runs, but it was not enough to take the series. Now, the Giants are 75-74 and once again just slightly ahead of an eager Diamondbacks team that is looking to hang onto that final straw before the rope that is hanging over mount .500 towards the playoffs will break.
After this series, the Giants will play the Dodgers again, 4 games in a row, before wrapping up the season against Cardinals and Rockies. An easier schedule than Arizona, so it looks like, although 2025 Diamondbacks fans know how terribly disappointing “easy schedules” can be.
The Diamondbacks will kick-off their final homestand of the season with this series. After the 3 games against the Giants, the Phillies will come to town for 3, followed up by 3 against the Dodgers. The team then wraps up the series against the Padres with 3 games in San Diego.
Half a game behind the Giants and two games behind the Mets. You can’t deny that the Diamondbacks are still pretty much in it, so far all fans called ChefAZ, let me do the following copy-paste from samath’s comment in yesterday’s guest recap:
Tiebreaker details!
The Diamondbacks-Giants tiebreaker will be decided by their upcoming 3-game series. The season series is currently 5-5. Talk about a must-win series!
The Diamondbacks-Mets season series went 3-3, so falls to the awkward “record against your own division” second tiebreaker. Here’s where that 4-game sweep the Mets just suffered in Philadelphia is extra sweet. Currently the Mets are 23-23 against the NL East with 3 games left against the Nationals and Marlins each, and the Diamondbacks are 23-20 against the NL West with 3 games left against the Dodgers, Giants and Padres each. Given that the Diamondbacks still need to make up 2 more games on the Mets, it’s very likely the Diamondbacks win that tiebreaker. The most likely scenarios I can write out where the Mets win the tiebreaker instead all involve at least 3 sweeps. (The Mets win if the intradivision records are tied due to having the worse interleague record.) Since both teams finish on an intradivision series, we’ll know the result of this tiebreaker before that final series, if not earlier.
The Diamondbacks lost the season series to the Reds. Fortunately, that’s now the least likely tiebreaker to matter, between the 3rd and 4th teams in the running for that last spot.
I’ll just say that given how last season ended, even sweeter than passing the Mets outright would be making the playoffs ahead of them on a tiebreaker.
Before going straight over to the matchups for this series, first the next interesting injury updates:
- Blaze Alexander was hit by a pitch in the fourth inning of yesterday’s game by Bailey Ober. A fluoroscopy taken at Target Field showed no breaks, but he’ll undergo further testing in Phoenix on Sept. 15.
- Andrew Saalfrank was apparently hampered by “some tenderness” and didn’t pitch the past few days but should be good to go on Monday.
- The Giants will call up their “top prospect” Bryce Eldridge for this series after Dominic Smith injured his hamstring.
Matchups.
Game #1 Mon 09/15 6:40 PM MST, Kai-Wei Teng (SFG) vs Zac Gallen (ARI).
- Kai-Wei Teng. 6 G, 5 GS, 22.2 IP, 2 W-4 L, 7.54 ERA, 3.50 FIP, 1.77 WHIP, 28/14 K/BB. $760,000.
- Zac Gallen. 30 GS, 174.2 IP, 11 W-14 L, 4.84 ERA, 4.53 FIP, 1.27 WHIP, 157/60 K/BB. $13,500,000.
With a day-off, the Giants shuffled a bit in their rotation and they lined up both Logan Webb and Robbie Ray to pitch in the series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, hence Zac Gallen now faces Kai-Wei Teng instead of Ray, like in the previous series against the Giants.
That is good news for the Diamondbacks, because Ray was untouchable in his matchup. Arizona now gets to meet the not-so-terrific Teng from Taiwan (or Chinese Taipei, whatever denomination you prefer). Teng was released by the Giants in the off-season, but returned on a minor-league contract. Teng’s FIP is much better than his ERA, so there is an argument to say that he isn’t as bad as his ERA suggests, but last year he made his MLB debut with the Giants and back then and now he just gives up a ton of hits. He gets quite some strikeouts, so that is good, but I always think that with a pitcher like Teng batters probably try to swing at whatever he offers, hence the boost in strikeouts.
Teng has 5 pitches: fastball, sinker, sweeper, curve and changeup. In the small sample size of this season, the sweeper is the put-away pitch while he has had success with his changeup.
Gallen did fine against the Giants, but was simply outpitched by a terrific Robby Ray. He should set himself up for the win in this easier matchup.
Game #2 Tue 09/16 6:40 PM MST, Carson Seymour (SFG) vs Eduardo Rodriguez (ARI).
- Carson Seymour. 13 G, 3 GS, 32.0 IP, 1 W-3 L, 5.34 ERA, 6.65 FIP, 1.53 WHIP, 22/12 K/BB. $760,000
- Eduardo Rodriguez. 26 GS, 137.1 IP, 8 W-8 L, 4.98 ERA, 4.46 FIP, 1.55 WHIP, 130/55 K/BB. $20,000,000
Seymour and Rodriguez squared off against eachother in their previous performance as well. That probably went for Seymour as bad as you might have expected and wanted to see as a Diamondbacks fan. Rodriguez shut out the Giants in that matchup and that was good to see. His ERA has dropped below 5.00, which is a good thing esthetically.
Game #3 Wed 09/17 12:40 PM MST, Justin Verlander (SFG) vs Brandon Pfaadt (ARI).
- Justin Verlander. 26 GS, 134.2 IP, 3 W-10 L, 3.94 ERA, 3.74 FIP, 1.37 WHIP, 124/47 K/BB. $15,000,000
- Brandon Pfaadt. 30 GS, 157.2 IP, 13 W-8 L, 5.31 ERA, 4.32 FIP, 1.40 WHIP, 131/34 K/BB. $799,400
If it were not for Rich Hill (and his 9 innings pitched), Justin Verlander would have been the oldest starting pitcher in the major leagues this season. His 3 wins are perhaps a bit on the unlucky side, although his 10 quality starts isn’t exactly top material either. Though more hittable than some years back, Verlander has been able to keep the ball in the park, which could also be a byproduct of Oracle Field.
In general, Verlander’s season is, just like Pfaadt’s, one of extremes. He went 7 scoreless innings against the Dodgers his last time out, which was his 3rd quality start in his last 4 outings, with the other being 5 scoreless innings, during which he also added two wins to his total of three. It goes to show that Verlander is on a nice, quiet hot streak of pitching, although not that long ago he looked like he was performing his last dance, with a 4.99 ERA mid July.
Pfaadt returned to the Pfaadt we have come to know in 2025 the last time he pitched, against Minnesota. Despite giving up 5 runs in 4.2 innings, Pfaadt didn’t get the loss so he has at least that window dressing he can be happy with. His 3.50 ERA and 1.28 WHIP at home is so much better, so that gives hope. Maybe the Diamondbacks should apply the “Bergkamp” with him: Dennis Bergkamp was a terrific (Dutch) striker for Arsenal, but afraid of flying, so Arsenal would just leave him at home when they had to play an insignificant away match. Sabermetrics 2.0 definitely approves of pitchers that only make starts at home.
