Diamondbacks 2023 Season Review: June
The Diamondbacks entered the month of June just 0.5 games back of the Dodgers in the NL West. They immediately moved into a tie with LA thanks to a walk-off two-run double off the bat of Corbin Carroll, to deliver a 5-4 victory over the Rockies on the very first day of the month.
The next day Merrill Kelly pitched seven strong innings, giving up just two runs to the powerhouse Braves and Miguel Castro locked down the 9th for his 6th save. Two days later Castro's run of 11 straight scoreless outings in which he went 2-0, with five saves and two holds came to a crashing halt. With a 5-4 lead, he entered the ninth, loaded the bases, and then gave up a grand slam to Eddie Rosario, resulting in an 8-5 loss.
Despite the crushing blow, the D-backs showed their resiliency by going out on the road and winning five straight against the Tigers and Nationals. They came home on June 12th and beat the Phillies in a 9-8 slugfest running their streak to six and record to 41-25, a whopping 16 games over .500. To that point they had a 4.0 game lead over the Dodgers in the NL West and the best record in the National League. It was a truly shocking place to be for a team that had lost 88 games in 2022 and 110 in 2021.
The charge was being led by Carroll, who was hitting over .400 for the month bringing his season average up to .313 with a .986 OPS. Not only had he staked his claim to the NL Rookie of the Year award, but he appeared poised to challenge Ronald Acuna Jr. as the NL MVP front-runner. Each time he came to the plate in Chase Field chants of "MVP, MVP" were heard.
That turned out to be the regular season peak for both the Diamondbacks and Carroll. The team dropped the next three games against the Phillies, including a 10-inning heartbreaker on June 14th in which they went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, losing 4-3. They took two of three at home from the Guardians and did the same to the Brewers on the road. They dropped the first two games in San Francisco to the Giants who had climbed ahead of the Dodgers and were just 1.5 games back of the D-backs on June 24th. Worse, Merrill Kelly suffered a blood clot in his calf, a condition that would cost a month of his season. Ryne Nelson had the first of two excellent back-to-back starts to stop the bleeding in the series finale in San Francisco as the D-backs won 5-2, restoring their lead to 2.5 games.
Coming back home, facing the tough Tampa Bay Rays, they won the opener behind Zac Gallen, but Scott McGough, who had taken over 9th inning duties from Castro took his 6th loss of the year on June 28th. He gave up three runs on four hits, turning a 2-0 lead into a 3-2 deficit. The D-backs lost the next day too, but the game result was almost secondary.
Corbin Carroll swung on a pitch during the fifth inning, injuring his surgically repaired shoulder. Carroll had been slumping over his previous 15 games, batting just .203 with three homers and a .636 OPS. Despite that, losing Carroll for any extended time would be a disaster for the D-backs and the team held its collective breath. He sat out of the final game of the month, a 6-2 victory in Anaheim over the Angels in which Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a grand slam.
The month of June ended with the Diamondbacks still clinging to a 2.0 game lead in the division, boasting a 49-35 record. They had gone 16-11 with a +15 run differential and were in first place for every day of the month. The D-backs posted their highest monthly OPS at the plate with a .785 mark. But they had gone just 8-9 since their peak on June 12th and the offense seemed to be slowing slightly as the month drew to a close.
The closer carousel of Andrew Chafin, Castro, and then McGough was producing inconsistent results. Regression to the mean was seeping into the team's performance at the plate, and the cloud of a potentially devastating injury to Carroll loomed. Still, it was a successful month by any definition, and the team's 76% playoff odds to that point seemed low. After all, they had the second-best record in the National League behind only the Braves.
Hitting Leaders
Evan Longoria had his best month, getting into 12 games and going 13-for-38, .342, including four home runs and a team-leading 1.159 OPS.
Ketel Marte hit .315/.443/.598, 1.040 OPS with seven home runs and 22 RBI.
Christian Walker slugged eight home runs and drove in 22 while batting .291 with a 1.062 OPS.
Pitching Leaders
Zac Gallen went 3-0 with a 3.69 ERA in five starts.
Merrill Kelly was 3-1 with a 4.02 ERA.
Kevin Ginkel had seven scoreless innings in relief for the month despite being sent to Triple-A Reno for two weeks with a sub-three ERA to allow Jose Ruiz to stay on the roster.
Scott McGough, despite a couple of losses, pitched to a 2.19 ERA in 12.1 innings and recorded five saves.
