The D-backs have been scuffling of late, but their bats seem to have come alive during their latest series vs. the Mets, where they’ve totaled 10 runs in two games.
Early expectations already exceeded
The greatest collapse in Valley sports history will not be the 2017 Diamondbacks.
That distinction belongs to the 1993-94 Suns, a team that won five consecutive playoff games to start the postseason, including the first two road games of the Western Conference semifinals. Charles Barkley was at the peak of his powers, scoring 56 points in a series-clinching game against the Warriors a week earlier. Then it all fell apart.
Oh, wait. Maybe it was the following year, when the Suns squandered a 3-1 series lead in a rematch against the Rockets. The collective shame still burns on Planet Orange, where two great teams had two great chances to win an NBA championship immediately following Michael Jordan’s retirement. And they came back empty.
These Diamondbacks are immune from that kind of eternal shame. The first two months of the season were great. The last two have been pathetic. They showed up in Minnesota last weekend and played one of the worst seriesin franchise history.
Still, no one expected this team to make the playoffs, much less compete for a title. They shouldn’t be judged that harshly, even if they were once 50-28 and a near statistical lock to make the playoffs. Even if their playoff chances might evaporate by the first week in September.
Some problems are obvious: a starting rotation that has dipped in performance, a bullpen that’s been highly combustible, sloppy defense, and an offense that specializes in leaving men on base. The intangible stuff is far more compelling.
Does this team have the necessary internal leadership? Publicly, Lovullo remains highly optimistic that the Diamondbacks will return to their winning ways. But his voice seems a bit different, stripped of some confidence. Or maybe he’s just exhausted from watching Fernando Rodney.
After losing a home series to the Cubs, Lovullo finally opened a curtain into the darkness, saying his team and been “wandering and drifting” for some time. It was a remarkable discloser given the full-blown denials that Lovullo had been issuing for weeks.
It also begs the question: What has Lovullo been doing all that time? And why isn't the problem fixed?
The clubhouse is full of quiet professionals. There are no raging bulls. That’s why Diamondbacks fans responded in mass when Archie Bradley let his emotions run wildin a game against the Dodgers. They want more players like him. They need more players like him.
Maybe flipping over a table and dogcussing the room after a loss are cheap parlor tricks. But when a team has a comfortable wild-card lead and responds by playing losing baseball for more than 25 percent of the season, everything is not OK. Somebody should be screaming about something.
The Cardinals don’t have this problem. Head coach Bruce Arians wants a veteran in every position room to mentor the young and wayward. Karlos Dansby recently grabbed two bystanders in the hallway so he could teach Haason Reddick proper technique. Larry Fitzgerald sent his medical people to visit Chad Williams, teaching the rookie how to treat his body better. There are player interventions happening all the time.
The Diamondbacks have a much different personality. And it doesn’t seem to be working.
No doubt, an unsightly collapse will stain the first year of the Mike Hazen-Torey Lovullo era, which couldn’t have started any better in the Valley. The team struck a chord with the masses. The Ballpark Summer Pass promotion brought new energy to the stadium. They defended their home turf as if Chase Field were a cathedral, and not a cavernous, allegedly crumbling airplane hangar.
They've lost their grip and some of their credibility. Zack Greinke just lost his personal catcher, Jeff Mathis. And how we feel about this team will largely be defined by six upcoming games against the Dodgers, a team that has embarrassed the Diamondbacks too many times in the past, on the field and in the pool.
They also have a week to get well. They were gifted four games against the Mets, a bad team playing their kids and shedding payroll. They return home for three games against the last-place Giants. A.J. Pollock finally had an all-star moment with hisgamewinning blast on Monday, his first road home run of the season. Robbie Ray is rejoining the rotation, and a return of Randall Delgado would shore up the bullpen.
If the Diamondbacks survive this ordeal, it could steel them for the postseason. They would enter the playoffs knowing they’ve already suffered through real adversity and responded. It might even be a blessing in disguise.
But if they fade away in a September swoon, their offseason will be full of scrutiny and self-loathing, a team that will have to answer a big question: How did they run out of fire and gas? They'll never be as bad as those squandering Suns. But many fans seem to be getting annoyed by the slumberous slump.
The last thing we need is another tease, another desert mirage.