After starting off the season red hot and ending April with a 20-8 record, the Arizona Diamondbacks have had a major downfall as they have gone 28-41. A drop in winning percentage from a steller .714 in April to a dismal .406 since. Its an amazing thing that they are still in 1st place in the NL West dispite being 1 game under .500 with a 48-49 record. There is 1 big factor from April that I noticed that gives me some much needed hope for the Dbacks as they go into the 2nd half of the season.
In April as the Dbacks went 20-8 (includes going 1-0 in March). The April schedule for Arizona is scatterd with NL West opponents. 22 of the 28 games were against the NL West. In these 22 games the Dbacks had a record of 17-5. The 6 games against other oppents was an even 3-3.
In May the Dbacks went 11-17 while going an even 3-3 in the only 6 games against NL West opponents. From June up until the All Star Break the Dbacks went an awful 16-23 and went 1-2 in their only 3 game series against the NL West. Throughout the 1st half the Dbacks have a record of 21-10 against the NL West.
The Dbacks in comparison have a record of 7-13 against the NL Central, 13-16 against the NL East and are 6-9 in Interleague play this season. Another point is that the Dbacks are a combined 28-20 at their home field, Chase Field, while being 20-29 on the road. With this taken into consideration lets take a look at the Dbacks second half schedule.
In the upcoming months the Dbacks have 10 NL West games left in July, 15 in August and 16 in September. For a combined 41 games out of the remaining 67 games against the NL West. Of those 26 games outside the NL West 19 of them are at Chase Field. 3 of the 7 away games are against a struggling Houston Astros team.
The Dbacks square off against their favorite opponent this season, the Colorado Rockies, 9 more times this season. The Dbacks are 5-1 against the Rockies at home and 3-0 against them at Coors Field for a combined 8-1. The Dbacks also have 13 games against the competing LA Dodgers. In the 1st half the Dbacks swept the Dodgers 3-0 at home and split 1-1 at Dodger Stadium (split 1-1 in their series in Arizona after the All Star Break at the time of this blog as well).
The San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres have taken the final series from the Dbacks this season. The Giants swept the Dbacks 3-0 at Arizona in their last outing but the 2 previous outings ended in a 2 game sweep in Arizona and a 2-1 series victory at ATT Park. The Padres have lost both series 2-1 in Arizona and at Petco Park but have won the last series 2-1 at Arizona. The Giants have 10 more games against the Dbacks while the Padres have 9.
With the look at the schedule ahead for the Dbacks I have much belief that they will ultimately win the NL West this season. The Dbacks strength against their division and relative advantage on their home turf will provide a much needed boost for the struggling Diamondbacks.
Ana Beatriz Barros
Ireivy Guerra
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