The Arizona Diamondbacks overcame a nine-game losing streak in the regular season to make the playoffs, the eighth such team in major league history. Two have won the World Series.
The Arizona Diamondbacks were not where they wanted to be three days ago, needing to win two road games against defending National League champion Philadelphia to make their first World Series since 2001.
If they had not been strengthened by coming out a stressful two weeks in early August, they might even have been worried.
The Diamondbacks this season became the eighth team in major league history to make the playoffs while enduring a nine-game losing streak in the regular season, and they qualified as the sixth and final National League wild card on the penultimate day of the season.
“This team is hungry,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said during the critical September stretch run. “They’ve been pushed around and bullied by the rest of the National League and I think they are tired of being the JV team for the rest of the National League.”
The Diamondbacks buried that notion with playoff victories over Milwaukee, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia. although it took a roller-coaster ride to get there. After reaching 50-34 on July 1, they fell a season-low two games below .500 when their losing streak reached nine games with a 10-5 loss to San Diego Aug. 11.
Arizona won 11 of its next 13 to get back into a wild card race that was not settled until the final week of the regular season, when the Chicago Cubs and then Cincinnati fell out. The Diamondbacks facilitated that by going 6-1 against the Cubs in September.
“For me, it was about not losing our identity,” said first baseman Christian Walker, who led the team with 33 homers and 103 RBIs. “In those moments it is easy to pull back and say, What are we missing? What should we be doing differently?’ Sometimes that is valid and warranted, but other times I think it about just keeping your head down and keep plugging.
