On Friday, the Arizona Diamondbacks (78-69) open up a nine game home stand, the final one of the season.
With 15 total games remaining, the snakes sit a half game back of the San Diego Padres (78-68) for the final NL Wild Card spot. They will play each other to close the season in San Diego from September 25-27. The winner of that series will hold the tiebreaker over the other.
With that collision course in mind, this home stand featuring the Rangers, Marlins and Yankees holds all the weight in the world for Torey Lovullo’s group.
Arizona is here mainly because of the strength of the bullpen. Lovullo has leaned hard on guys like Brandyn Garcia, Juan Morillo, Jonathan Loáisiga, and more all year long.
The starting pitching staff is a mystery after Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt. Corbin Burnes threw 57 pitches in his first start back and Lovullo says he is on track to be able to throw 65-70 in his next outing.
Zac Gallen and Michael Soroka returned Wednesday, with Gallen starting and Soroka piggybacking. Lovullo is uncommitted on who will start next time they reach that spot in the rotation and whether one will piggyback Burnes or the other starter.
The offense is sputtering lately. Corbin Carroll sat two games due to back spasms, but he’s gutting it out in full force the rest of the way. It remains to be seen if he’s healthy enough to be the MVP type player they need him to be after a brutal stretch since the beginning of August.
“I think he wasn’t bothered by it (back injury) too much over the last few months,” Lovullo said during his pregame availability Friday. “But the last few days before we gave him two days it was absolutely hindering him.”
The offense as a whole still doesn’t make sense, and it appears that bad pitch selection and approach is the cause of their cold spell, not just luck.
D-backs Rate Stats, Plate discipline, batted ball quality by month
Basically a league average offense that has slumped badly over last couple of weeks. Unlike past troughs, this slump isn’t bad luck. K Rate Up, BB rate down, and Hard Contact down a lot during this slump pic.twitter.com/KF5Sr1svPJ— Jack Sommers (@shoewizard59) September 11, 2026
The core of this club is used to these final week stretches, with a postseason spot being on the line in each of the last four seasons. Since squeaking in during the 2023 season, this team has yet to finalize a strong September run. Lovullo believes those experiences are shaping these guys for this run.
My guess, a 10-5 finish will be needed to lock up a playoff spot. That’s 89 wins, a total reached in 2024 that resulted in missing the playoffs due to a tiebreaker. Knocking out at least six or seven of those wins at home would sure give this team a great shot to accomplish that.
The post Arizona Diamondbacks chasing final NL Wild Card spot during last home stand first appeared on Sports360AZ.
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