As Spring Training came to a close in late March, the long road of the 162 games began on March 29th and after a disappointing shutout loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2017 MLB Playoffs, the Arizona Diamondbacks made some pretty big changes this offseason and it looks as if it is paying off quite well.
In the offseason, the Arizona Diamondbacks lost a big piece of their offense in J.D. Martinez, but they did manage to acquire such names as Steven Souza Jr. from the Tampa Bay Rays, free-agent Jarrod Dyson, catcher Alex Avila, pitcher Brad Boxberger from the Rays, and Japanese pitcher Yoshihisa Hirano; again, some new faces and a new team as well as some returning players such as star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, A.J. Pollock, Chris Owings, and 2nd-year head coach Torey Lovullo.
Here’s a look at the Dbacks start of the season so far:
With the opening game series on home field at Chase Field, the Diamondbacks were set to take on their wild card opponent from last season: the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies are a very skilled team, but will the new faces of the Dbacks make them the higher-skilled team? After an impressive 8-2 victory over the Rockies, the Dbacks were already showing signs of clear offensive dominance from the get go. The next day, the Dbacks and Rockies were back at it again, only this time, both teams showed their offensive dominance. Dbacks short-stop, Nick Ahmed had himself a huge night, as he went 3-4 with 1 homerun and 5 RBI’s. The Dbacks would go on to win this game 9-8, a very close game that involved two multi-run-scoring homeruns from the Rockies, but the Dbacks and Nick Ahmed were just more on their game that night. The Dbacks would lose the seires closer 2-1, but would still win the series 2-1. The next opponent would be their NL West rivals, the L.A. Dodgers.
Much like every other Arizona team, this series’ message would be, as always, “Beat L.A.!” and beat L.A. they did, here’s the recap:
After winning the opening game to the series 8-7, the Dbacks are clearly seeking revenge after getting shutout in the playoffs last season. The game was very back-and-forth as the Dodgers would keep taking the lead, but the Dbacks would keep tying it back up. The game was 6-3 LA, but Chris Owings scored a 3-run homerun to tie the game, but the game would require extra innings. It wasn’t until the 15th inning that the Dodgers would take the lead, but Nick Ahmed would score another RBI to tie the game once again and Jeff Mathias would score an RBI himself and the Dbacks would take the walk-off win to open the series. The Dbacks would win the next two games 6-1 and 3-0, sweeping the L.A. Dodgers and improving their record to 5-1. The next opponent would be the St. Louis Cardinals in St. Louis.
The Dbacks would win the opening game of the series 3-1 as pitcher Robbie Ray was the star of the game as he threw for 6 innings only having 2 hits against him and 9 strikeouts and only 1 earned run. The Dbacks would drop the next game 5-3, but would rebound the next game and win the game 4-1 and the series 2-1, another series win. Next up would be the San Francisco Giants.
The Dbacks’ offense would drop a little, but the Giants are a very skilled team as well, but the Dbacks had some strong defense themselves as they snuck away with a 2-1 win to open the series. The next game would show the giants offensive abilities as they managed to sneak away with a 5-4 win to tie the series at 1 a piece, but the Dbacks would win the final game of the series 7-3 to extend their record to 9-3. The next games they would be in L.A. to take on the Dodgers once again.
Again the Dbacks managed to sneak away with another win after their impressive offensive abilities as they won the opening game 8-7. The Dbacks had a 7-2 lead but the Dodgers would get it back to 7-5, but Nick Ahmed would make it 8-5, but the Dodgers would get the game within 1 run. The Dbacks would sneak away with it and win 8-7. The next game would again display the Dbacks offensive skills as they won 9-1. The Dodgers would get the first run, but the rest was all Dbacks. Katel Marte would score and RBI to tie the game at 1. The Paul Goldschmidt would hit a 2-run homerun to extend the lead to 3-1. With 2 men on base, Deven Marrero would hit a 3-run homerun to make the lead 6-1, but a run would be taken away as no one was sure whether it was a homerun or not, so the lead would still be 5-1. Next A.J. Pollock would hit a 2-run homerun to make it 7-1. Pollock would hit another homer to make it 8-1. Finally Alex Avila would hit a homerun himself and make it 9-1 Dbacks. The have now won 11 straight regular season games against L.A. and have won yet again another series and extend their record to 11-3 and lead the NL West.
