Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #38: 5/9 @ Reds

Our first weekday morning baseball of the year, with Arizona seeking to go for the sweep over Cincinnati. Been a while. The D-backs’ last road sweep in the regular season was all the way back from June 9-11 last year, when they beat the Tigers in Detroit 11-6, 5-0 and 7-5. It was part of a six-game winning streak, which was tied for the season high (Arizona had three of them). Victory today would be more modest, giving the Diamondbacks four wins in a row, before they move on to a likely tougher opponent in Baltimore. They currently have the best record in the American League. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: just take care of business this morning in Cincinnati.

The winning streak, modest though it is, has boosted the D-backs up in the National League standings. Going into play today, they are now ninth, having leap-frogged the plummeting Reds, who have now lost seven in a row, and ten of their last twelve since starting the season 14-10. Important for the D-backs to take advantage of meeting them in a bad patch, and rack up as many wins as possible, especially with how the schedule looks for the rest of May. Arizona now sits 1.5 games back of the final wild-card spot. However, it is worth noting, that is currently a three-way tie between the Padres, Mets and Nationals, who are all exactly at .500. Getting the D-backs there themselves is the first step.