J.J. Putz says NL West ‘still up for grabs’

Arizona Diamondbacks closer J.J. Putz hopes that the doubleheader victories over the Miami Marlins are “a good sign of things to come.”

Putz and the D-backs find themselves six games out and the two teams ahead of them, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, cannot seem to pull away.

“It’s still up for grabs, that’s for sure,” Putz said. “We definitely need to play some consistent baseball for the rest of the season.”

Putz said that the players on the team don’t talk too much about the playoff race, they instead try to keep things fun.

“I think we just know exactly where we are in the standings at this point in the season,” Putz said. “Then once we get the logistics of where we are at, we turn to fantasy football-type stuff.”

However, just because the D-backs like to have a little fun in the locker room doesn’t mean that they don’t take every game seriously.

“We have some pretty intense coaches here with Gibby, Matty Williams and those guys, so they are not going to let us come to the ballpark taking things for granted” Putz said. “They are constantly talking about winning each inning and just little things like that.”

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