PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks last year looked like a team of destiny, one that reenergized the fan base, which then gave the team’s its highest average home attendance since 2008. But after Saturday’s 5-0 loss to the San Diego Padres, they’re one step closer to failing to capitalize on that momentum.
In their most important games of the season, the Diamondbacks have lost five of six and fallen out of playoff position.
“Oh, man,” manager Torey Luvullo said. “I think the end of every game, you just got to sit back and appreciate how great of a privilege it is to go out there and compete every single day. … This game can be awesome and it can just rip your heart out.”
The Diamondbacks entered Saturday in a virtual tie with the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets, in need of some help to secure a wild-card spot. Though the Braves walked off the Royals, the Mets were shut out by a Brewers team that was playing for nothing, leaving at least an opening for the Diamondbacks to help themselves greatly with a win. Instead, put on a performance immune to this season’s highs and emblematic of its lows.
Thanks to the Mets, who have dropped three straight games, the Diamondbacks can still preserve their postseason hopes with a win to close their regular season: They must at least be in a virtual tie with the Braves or Mets at the conclusion of Sunday’s slate for Monday’s Braves-Mets doubleheader to matter. So the Diamondbacks also turn their attention to Monday if they lose and the Mets lose.
If the Diamondbacks lose and the Mets win, however, the Diamondbacks would be eliminated. It’s the only remaining scenario that’d rule the Monday doubleheader moot.
Not too long ago, the Diamondbacks found themselves holding one of the NL’s wild cards. But their last week has been spent in a spiral.
It all started last Sunday. The Diamondbacks found themselves with a four-game winning streak and a comfortable 8-0 lead over the Milwaukee Brewers through three innings. Then, one of the best offenses in Major League Baseball scored one run the rest of the game, and one of the worst pitching staffs in MLB lived up to its status. The Diamondbacks blew their largest lead in franchise history and with it, gave way to a stretch that dropped their Fangraphs postseason odds from 83.1 percent to 41.4 percent.
Once the Diamondbacks had lost control of their fate Friday, Lovullo did everything in his power to keep his team from pushing the red button. By Saturday, it was business as usual in the home clubhouse at Chase Field. Another crowd of 40,000-plus returned, hopeful to witness a change in fortune.
Instead, a Diamondbacks offense with the second-best batting average in the league looked helpless against Randy Vásquez, a right-handed pitcher that the Padres recalled from Triple A earlier in the day.
Several Padres regulars including Luis Arraez, the frontrunner for the NL batting title, sat 0ut. They had already clinched home-field advantage for their Wild Card Series. And the Diamondbacks on Saturday desperately needed the win. The Padres didn’t, but broke a scoreless tie after eight innings en route to a runaway win late.
On a night when Vásquez completed six scoreless innings with only one hit allowed for the Padres, one of the most consistent relievers in the second half of this season, the Diamondbacks’ AJ Puk, surrendered a single, a two-run home run and a solo shot against his first three batters in the top of the ninth after entering without a run allowed since Aug. 2.
For those few moments, it sounded like a Padres home game.
A quick bottom half left the Diamondbacks with only two hits, and another loss.
“It’s baseball,” Puk said. “Things happen like that, and I’m looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow.”
In this case, tomorrow is game No. 162, the regular season finale on Sunday against the Padres. It could be a game that helps to save the Diamondbacks’ hopes for the postseason. Or it could be a game that marks the closing act of a collapse.
(Top photo of Diamondbacks pitcher AJ Puk after surrendering a homer to catcher Kyle Higashioka: Joe Camporeale / Imagn Images)
