Diamondbacks 2023 Season Review: September
The Diamondbacks entered the Month of September with a 69-66 record, one game back of the San Francisco Giants for the 3rd and final Wild Card spot in the National League. Despite a horrific slump that saw them drop to two games under .500 in early August, they clawed their way back into contention and were poised to play "meaningful games in September". That was a phrase that GM Mike Hazen coined in February as the second marker of a successful season. By this point however the entire organization, their fans, and most importantly, the players were hungry for more.
The month got off to a somewhat halting start. Zach Davies pitched one of his better games of the year in a 4-2 win over the eventual AL East Division winners, the Baltimore Orioles. Arizona dropped the next two however and were soundly outplayed. Merrill Kelly had a season high 12 strikeouts in limiting the Rockies to one run on September 4th. After losing the next game 3-2, the offense finally broke out to win 12-5 in the series finale. They erased a 5-0 deficit, courtesy of Davies, thanks to a five run 3rd inning. A two-run double from Tommy Pham and a game-tying three-run blast from Alek Thomas keyed the comeback.
That set up a huge four game series in Chicago against the Cubs. The Northsiders were having a good season with a 76-64 record and a +101 run differential. They were in the second wild card position, four full games ahead of the D-backs and had a Cy Young contender in Justin Steele. Pham and Ketel Marte had three RBI each in a 6-2 win in the first game. The second game was a classic pitcher's duel, in which Zac Gallen threw his first ever complete game shutout in a 1-0 victory. In the third game Pham once again had the big hit, knocking in a run in the top of the 10th inning, resulting in an eventual 3-2 victory. They lost the series finale however, missing a chance to tie up the Cubs then and there.
The D-backs were 6-4 for the month to that point, and Paul Sewald had closed out four of those wins for the save. Off they went to New York to face the Mets for another four games series. Pham once again came up clutch, hitting a game-tying homer in the 8th inning. Ketel Marte doubled in the go-ahead run in the 9th as the D-backs stole a 4-3 victory. Having won six of their last eight games it seemed they were cruising towards a playoff spot, but it wasn't going to be that easy. They lost the next three games in devastating fashion, outscored 25-6 by a Mets team that was already out of the pennant race. Gallen and Kelly were hammered in successive starts.
Still clinging to a one-game lead over the Giants for the final Wild Card spot, they got the Cubs again for three at home. After taking the first game 6-4 behind Brandon Pfaadt, who outpitched Steele, the second game of that series became a classic showing of D-backs resiliency. They overcame deficits of 3-2, 4-3, 5-4, and 6-5, to walk off the Cubs in the 13th inning. That game was punctuated by Evan Longoria's mad dash home and sprawling slide on a single from Gabriel Moreno. A demoralized Chicago team lost the series finale 6-2, with Arizona passing them in the Wild Card standings for good. Arizona went on to take the final two games of the home stand against the Giants, as Zac Gallen and Kelly effectively ended the Giants playoff hopes.
Another road trip to New York and Chicago followed, where weather and a rainout marred the series against they Yankees, who won two of the three games. Arizona rebounded by Clobbering the White Sox 15-4, and won 3-0 in the next game despite only garnering four hits. Pfaadt was brilliant in that game throwing 5.2 scoreless innings while striking out eight and not walking a batter. In a troubling sign perhaps, they had only three hits in a 3-1 loss the next day, as the offense managed just seven hits in total over the final two games in Chicago.
Heading back home to face the Houston Astros for the final three games of the regular season, the D-backs needed just one more victory to clinch the third and final Wild Card spot. That wouldn't be easy, as Houston was fighting to clinch the AL West Division over the Rangers.
The offense stayed asleep, with just four hits, and one run, an RBI double from Moreno in the 9th as a rally fell short in a 2-1 loss. Facing Justin Verlander the next night, on September 30th, they were needing either a win or a Cincinnati Reds loss to clinch a spot. The D-backs were shutout 5-0, on just five hits, but the Reds lost, and the celebration was on. They had made the postseason just two seasons after having lost 110 games, an extremely rare accomplishment.
While some complained about the D-backs "backing into" the playoffs, that was nonsense. The season is 162 games long, and they earned their way into the postseason for the first time since 2017. When asked when he started to really believe the Diamondbacks were not only going to make the postseason but do some damage when they got there, manager Torey Lovullo pointed to the two series against the Cubs as the key point in the season for him.
That's not to say there weren't concerns however. One question left remaining was whether they would be the 5th of 6th seed in the playoffs. That question was answered the next night when perhaps a bit hungover, the D-backs lost again, 8-1, allowing the Miami Marlins to catch them with the same record of 84-78. Due to a better head-to-head record, Miami was the 5th seed and got to go play the Phillies in Citizens Bank Park, while the D-backs were off Milwaukee to face the NL Central winning Brewers.
The elephant in the room was what happened to the offense. Over their final five games the D-backs scored just six runs, and batted .149 without homering. That's not to say there weren't highlights in the month, but it was a bad time to go into a slump. On top of that, they'd also have to ask Pfaadt and his 5.72 ERA to start Game 1 of the Wild Card Series. Needless to say, they got on the plane for Milwaukee as heavy underdogs.
Any review of the month of September that did not highlight the work of the bullpen would be incomplete. A weak spot for most of the year, over the final month the Arizona pen posted the second best ERA (2.31) in the National League. Newly acquired Ryan Thompson, recent call up Andrew Saalfrank, and a resurgent Miguel Castro combined to throw 33.1 innings giving up just one run. They got excellent work from Joe Mantiply, Kevin Ginkel, and of course Sewald who anchored the back end with six saves.
Diamondbacks Top Relievers in September
Diamondbacks Top Five Hitters in September
