With Cardinals’ win over Giants, D-backs knocked out of NL Wild Card race
Sep 23, 2018, 2:43 PM | Updated: 2:47 pm
Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo wipes his brow during a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Sunday, Sept 23, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)
(AP Photo/Darryl Webb)
It’s official.
The Arizona Diamondbacks will not be heading to the postseason as a National League Wild Card.
With a win from the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday, the D-backs have been officially eliminated in the NL Wild Card race.
The disappointing ending to their Wild Card hopes can be credited to a bullpen that struggled, a starting rotation that had a difficult time lasting in games and inconsistent play from month to month.
The club got off to a strong start to begin the season, stringing together a 18-7 record in April. The bats were working and the bullpen was sound.
But then a concerning trend started.
With every solid month of baseball, came the complete opposite in the next.
In 27 games in the month of May, the D-backs went from a clear-cut pennant contender to a big question mark. They would win just eight of those games, hitting just .193 with 74 RBI as a team.
The good part was that the team still held a lead in the NL West. The bad part is that Arizona would follow this trend the rest of the season.
They would win 19 games in June, but fell off the final three months.
Their only winning month of baseball in the last three months was August where they went 14-12. Arizona collapsed in September, winning only five of its 19 games.
Heading into Sunday’s game, the D-backs’ .216 batting average in September was second-worst in the MLB, only ahead of the Miami Marlins.
What had once been the best bullpen in the league amassed a 6.92 ERA, almost a full run higher than the next-worst team.
In a season in which the D-backs won their first nine series of the season, they have yet to win one in September.
Last year, the D-backs got into the playoffs last season as a Wild Card, beating the Colorado Rockies before losing the NL Division Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-0.
