TORONTO -- The Diamondbacks are back at the .500 mark -- and if that sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the 11th time this year they’ve been there. In this up-and-down season, they’ve never been more than five games above that mark or four games below it.
That could change after Thursday’s 9-5 win salvaged a three-game set against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre, because their next nine games are against the Rockies and White Sox on the road and then the Marlins at home.
Still, these next 10 days present a golden opportunity against teams that have had a rough go of it this year.
They figure to do well over that stretch if they play like they did Thursday, when they got 5 2/3 innings of well-pitched baseball from Ryne Nelson and a pair of big home runs from Eugenio Suárez and Pavin Smith.
Arizona never trailed, scoring two runs in the second and third innings before tacking on three runs in the fifth and another two in the sixth.
“It's been crazy,” Suárez said of the team hovering around the .500 mark. “We get there, we feel good and then we play some bad games. But that’s just the game, you know, this is how baseball is. We just got to continue to play good baseball and believe in our team. I think we got a really good opportunity to keep going, and now we go back to the States and try to win games in Colorado and Chicago to keep going. That's got to be our mentality. Because I think if we can play like this, we're going to have a chance to play over .500.”
The .500 mark is not where the Diamondbacks intended to be when they went out and signed free agent right-hander Corbin Burnes to a six-year, $210 million contract and raised their Opening Day payroll up to a club record $195 million.
But injuries and some underperformance in key areas have left them treading water.
“That's not our final destination,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “That's not where we want to stand. But given all the set of circumstances, the entire set of circumstances that we've been dealing with over the past three weeks, I'm proud of the fight this team has shown. They care. They go out there every single day with intentions of playing their finest game. But we've got a long way to go. We know that, and we want to win baseball games as bad as anybody in the entire state of Arizona. We got to go out and play our game.”
The bullpen has been a major issue for the Diamondbacks this year and with Juan Morillo and Ryan Thompson starting to pitch better, along with the arrival of lefty Kyle Backhus, Lovullo has more options now in bridging the game to closer Shelby Miller, who despite his hiccup Tuesday night has been outstanding this year.
“I think we're getting some roles [settled] down there, and that's very, very important, and that's what I've been looking for,” Lovullo said. “I've been looking for the bridge guys, the guys to keep leads where they are and hand it off to the backend. Things are moving well down there. Overall, we’re looking for guys to get on rolls, get big outs and help us win games.”
These next 10 days are a perfect opportunity to do just that.