10 Games To Go

Here we sit, with just 10 games to play in the regular season for the division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks. Up 1 game over the Padres, who have 12 games left, and 2.5 games over the Phillies in the wildcard. Which i think is ridiculous to mention, since they are winning the division, but everyone seems to report that.

The Dbacks haven't played particularly well as of late, losing three of their last 5, including a bad defeat against the Giants two nights ago when they lost after leading by three heading into the 8th inning. The Dbacks recovered last night, however, behind a complete game shutout by Micah Owings. Micah was fantastic, facing only one batter over the minimum, giving up one walk to the first batter he faced, and allowing just two hits. The effort came at just the right time, righting the Dbacks ship after a bad few days.

Without their best hitter Orlando Hudson the rest of the way, who is out with a torn ligament in his left thumb. In his absence, the Dbacks have filled in nicely with Augie Ojeda, Jeff Cirillo, and Alberto Callaspo splitting time at 2nd base. Ojeda has been red hot at the plate, and Callaspo had a solid night last night.

The Diamondbacks throw Double D out on the mound tonight, Doug Davis, in the rubber match of the Giants series. It is an extremely important game, as are just about all the remaining ones. The Dbacks can't afford to lose any more series', and they must take care of business today. The Padres are breathing down their necks and playing the Pirates, who really are just awful. It is the third game of a four game series, and the Padres' are looking for a sweep.

As far as i'm concerned, the Dbacks magic number is 6. If the Dbacks finish the season 6-4, the Padres would have to go 8-4 to win the division. While not impossible, it is a tall order, even for a good team likes the Padres. Besides the remaining games against the Pirates, the Padres get Colorado at home, then finish the season at San Francisco and at Milwaukee. The Brewers should (hopefully, maybe, ah hell who knows...) still be in the middle of their own division race, which will make that final series of the regular season a good one.

You see, the beautiful thing is, the Dbacks hold the tiebreaker over the Padres, by means of taking 10 of the 18 games the two teams played this year. So even though technically the Dbacks are only a game up on the Padres, the Dbacks win the division if they finish tied, so the Padres need to finish ahead of us by a game. Which means they have some work to do...

As always, the Dbacks have to take care of their business on the field. And even though he can't be a leader on the field, O'Dog is keeping a great presence on the bench. That presence will help the young guys on the team, many of whom started the year in the minor leagues and have never been in this situation before. Then again, that could be a good thing. They don't know any better to be nervous or jittery.

10 games to go, this is where it gets exciting!