Ladies, gentlemen, and distinguished others! Welcome to Meaningful September Baseball! Starting things off, you don’t get much more meaningful than this series against the Phillies. In fact, I think a case could be made that it is at least as, if not more, important than the upcoming series against San Diego. You might disagree with that sentiment, but the way I see it, if the Diamondbacks don’t win this series, here and now, against the Phillies, the odds of that final series mattering grow slimmer. On the flip side, you win or sweep this series, well, our odds of making that SD series matter less for the opposite reasons increase.
It is going to be an incredibly hard task, however. The Phillies are one of, if not the hottest team in baseball right now. They are currently on a four game winning streak, and a couple games before that they won nine in a row. They are on fire, and it’s going to take an all around performance each and every game for the Diamondbacks to have a shot. On the other hand, the Phillies are destined to come back down to earth eventually. Maybe the Diamondbacks are the ones to make that happen.
In addition to facing such a fearsome foe, the Diamondbacks are either getting a perennial MVP candidate back, or a clubhouse cancer. The debate doesn’t seem to leave much room for nuance within that binary, so it must be true. Regardless of which it is, I don’t think anyone will disagree that it is going to be incredibly impactful. Either the team is going to rally around him, forgive, and move on, or his presence will destroy the chemistry they’ve spent the past three seasons building in the clubhouse. He’s either going to be a massive difference maker, or he’s going to be a waste of a roster spot and we’ll be missing the .1-whatever batting average Vargas has been putting up in his absence. We’ll start to get the answers to that this series.
So yes, this is undeniably an important series. For reasons on and off the field. In the standings. Maybe even in decision making come this offseason, though I would hope those that run the Diamondbacks are slightly less reactionary than us fans and at least wait until the next series to make those types of decisions. Regardless, I think I’ve made my case for most important game of the season.
The Diamondbacks have not yet announced their starters as of writing. It should be Pfaadt and Eduardo Rodriguez going in the first two starts, if the rotation holds. Right off the bat, the Diamondbacks are putting their best chance forward at winning the series. It is worth noting, however, that Pfaadt has been much more average his last two starts than he had been prior and since his return from the minors. He’s still giving the Diamondbacks length and a chance to win the game, but much less convincingly than he had been before.
E-Rod continues his Cy Young caliber season. Obviously, he won’t get it. That’s locked up by some guy in Milwaukee. But it’s a hell of a redemption story that he’s going to get any votes at all, which he should. If you had told me at the start of the season that he would clearly be our best starting pitcher, I would not have expected us to be playing Meaningful September Baseball.
The Phillies will be trotting out Aaron Nola, Jesus Luzardo, and Andrew Painter for their starters. Nola is having another down year. It feels odd to say, but between his ERA of 5.03 and Painter’s 5.95, the Diamondbacks have a pretty clear pitching advantage in this series.
Ultimately, I’m not sure it’s worth making a prediction for who will prevail in this series. The Diamondbacks have been pretty mediocre overall lately, the Phillies have been literally on fire. That being said, the rotations line up so we have our strongest part versus their weaker half. And… the Phillies can’t win forever. It will be a hard fought battle, but it will be a great series.