Following a sweep at the hands of the Rays, the Arizona Diamondbacks responded with six straight wins, including a sweep over the Boston Red Sox, who have now fallen further out of the American League Wild Card race than at any other point this season.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Over the last 25 games, no team in baseball has a better record than Arizona’s 20-5 mark. Of those five losses, two were by a margin of one run, and two others by a margin of two runs.
On pace to finish with their best record since 2002, the Diamondbacks are just three games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West and hold a 4.5-game lead in the Wild Card race.
As a result, the Diamondbacks have reached a new season high in Will Leitch’s weekly MLB Power Rankings. Once ranked as low as 19th, they now sit in the 8th spot. Leitch commented, “The Diamondbacks have been so hot lately that they’re now on pace for 92 wins, which would be their fourth-best winning percentage in franchise history … and better than the 2001 and 2023 teams, both of whom reached the World Series.”
One spot ahead of the Diamondbacks are the Cleveland Guardians, whom Arizona swept in a three-game series a few weeks ago. Next up are the Houston Astros, who the Diamondbacks will be playing for the first time this season on September 6th. The same goes for the Brewers, ranked 6th, as Arizona will face the NL Central-leading Brewers six times between September 13th and September 22nd.
With these series remaining, plus a couple against the Dodgers and Padres, the Diamondbacks have the 5th toughest remaining schedule in baseball. This is worth monitoring, considering the D-backs have a 37-37 record against teams with a .500 record or better. This is significant because, if the season ended today, no National League team currently in the postseason holds a losing record against teams with a winning percentage above .500.
In the short term, the Diamondbacks return home after a nine-game road trip for a series against the New York Mets starting on Tuesday. When these two teams met back in late May, they split the four-game series. In the opener, the Diamondbacks will have Eduardo Rodriguez on the mound, who tossed an eight-inning shutout the last time he faced the Mets.
