D-backs showed tremendous resiliency with impressive April start

I was actually encouraged by the Diamondbacks’ 15-12 record in the month of April, despite the fact they blew more saves than any other team in baseball.

With all the injuries this team has sustained (Aaron Hill, Willie Bloomquist, Adam Eaton, a red hot Didi Gregorious and more), the fact that Martin Prado and Miguel Montero are getting off to slow starts (and you know they’re going to hit), and that their bullpen has blown a major league leading 9-saves and they’re only a game out in the division is astounding.

And the best stat of all is 6-3. That’s the record Arizona has posted in the games where they blew a save. That’s so impressive to me and shows the toughness of this team.

Blowing saves is like having a football team lineup and run the ball down your throat or getting beat on the boards in basketball or losing the battles in the corners in hockey: it’s demoralizing.

The strength of this team is their bullpen, especially the back end of that bullpen. To see the strength of your team take the ball and not do what is expected of them doubles down on morale. Yet the Diamondbacks continue to grind the tools of their trade, with their heads down, on the stone cold belief that life is not a box of chocolates.

These guys aren’t frontrunners and there isn’t a better internal attribute a team could have in any league — college or professional — than not being front runners.

The D-backs have not played their best baseball, have some key guys missing from their lineup and are right in the thick of it, showing great resiliency and resolve in the process.

And because of this fact, I won’t bet against this bunch.

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