Top moments from first half of the Arizona Diamondbacks season

Jun 30, 2011, 6:30 PM | Updated: 9:10 pm

Arizona Sports

At the halfway point of their season the Arizona Diamondbacks are in second place, sitting 2.5 games behind the World Series champion San Francisco Giants.

The first three months have brought their fair share of up and down moments for the Snakes. Since the D-backs are in second place, have a winning record overall — both at home and on the road — and are an entertaining team to follow, we are going to look at the Top 5 moments from the first 82 games.

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Joe Saunders was the player we had all heard of when the D-backs sent Dan Haren to the Angels last year. For that, his expectations were pretty high. He started the year losing his first five decisions. It was on May 24, the second game of a double header, that he got his first win of the year. It was the start of a 7-game winning streak and also the last time the D-back were at or below .500.

The Diamondbacks bullpen was atrocious in 2010. J.J. Putz made people forget that atrociousness in the first two months of the season after he converted his first 16 save opportunities.

Wily Mo Wily Mo. Pena has been a jolt of energy to this lineup since being called up on June 21. His most important at-bat came on June 28 when he hit the team's second walk-off home run of the season. It was a 6-4 victory over the Indians, stopping a three-game losing streak.

Ian Kennedy became the "ace" of the staff when he pitched a complete game shutout with 10 Ks and no walks on April 25. To make it even more impressive, it came against the Phillies with Cliff Lee on the mound, and Kennedy had been up the entire night before because his wife had given birth to their first child at 2:04 a.m.

As the Diamondbacks headed into the final game of their series on June 16 they had lost the first two by one run and five in a row overall to the Giants. That night in the tenth inning Justin Upton came to the plate and delivered his first career walk-off home run after the Giants had tied the game in the top of the ninth. Upton has been killing the baseball and carrying the team the entire month of June.

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