Pave Ruth

A gut punching series loss at the hands of the Miami Marlins not only had the Diamondbacks lose more ground in the NL Wild Card race to the 3 teams ahead of them, it also seemed to take all the hopium that remained in our systems and replace it with either copium or just straight up despair as the D’Backs would go from 2 losing series against 2 sub .500 teams to welcoming the New York Yankees into town for the final home series of the 2026 season.

The Yankees may have already secured their spot in October before their trip to the desert but with a chance at the AL East title still a possibility, along with having Gerrit Cole and the probable AL Cy Young winner in Cam Schlittler taking the bump, this would be no cake walk of a series and the Diamondbacks would need to at least win this series if they want any sliver of hope going into their final 6 games in Colorado and San Diego. With the 25th anniversary of the 2001 World Series winning team being celebrated this series, maybe they would be able to have some of that magic rub off onto this 2026 ballclub and use it as the fuel they need to propel them towards postseason baseball.

Eduardo Rodriguez has undoubtedly been the best starter in the Diamondbacks rotation for all of 2026 as he leads the starters in wins (15), ERA (2.89), IP (183.2) and K’s (140), but the issue that has been rearing its head all season for Rodriguez has been his struggles out of the gate and we got more of the same in Friday night’s series opener with the Yankees putting up a 5 spot before the Diamondbacks even had the chance to swing the lumber.

The three of us looked at ERod’s numbers from the 1st inning of his starts compared to the rest of the game and it was as night and day as it could get with his first inning ERA this season sitting at 7.84, a WHIP of 1.77 and an opposing slash of .302/.389/579. From the 2nd inning and beyond he evolves into a completely different pitcher with his 1.89 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and opposing hitter slashing just .222/.279/.326. This isn’t even necessarily just an issue he’s had in 2026 either as his career ERA in the 1st inning (4.51) compared to the rest of his innings (3.92) shows that he’s always had struggles early in games for most of his career.

With the demoralizing 9-2 loss on Friday night the Diamondbacks and all snakes fans in attendance would hope that the vibes would be turned around as Saturday would be the big 25th anniversary celebration of the greatest world series of all time (yes I’m biased) with so many legends from that squad like Randy Johnson, Luis Gonzalez, Tony Womack, Miguel Batista, Damien Miller and more in the building for the festivities.

Both the Yankees and Diamondbacks had clutch pitching and hitting at times throughout this game as the score was knotted at 3 a piece going into the bottom of the 9th inning with the Snakes in desperate need of a win to keep their playoff hopes from lowering even further, and that’s when the infamous Pavin Smith stepped in the box as a pinch hitter with a runner on 1st and 1 out. The baseball gods must like reruns because they decided that a Diamondbacks walk-off of the Yankees on the night of the 2001 WS celebration would be the most fitting outcome, and Pavin delivered just that with a 2-R home run into the sea of Yankee fans in right field.

All 3 of us have been very vocal in our frustrations with Smith’s struggles in his career here in the desert and the front office seeming to refuse to move on from a player that has accumulated 0.1 bWAR in his time as a major leaguer, and we all still feel that he should not be on this roster at the beginning of the 2027 season (if we have one that is) in any capacity, but we did admit that it was nice to see Pavin summon his inner Luis Gonzalez and send the fans into a frenzy with a walk-off over the Yankees.

The fireworks might have been after the game on Friday night, but Sunday’s final home game of the 2026 regular season had plenty of leftovers as it felt like baseballs were flying out left and right. Most of them came for the Yankees off of Corbin Burnes in the 4th inning, but the biggest one was in the Diamondbacks favor with Nolan Arenado hitting a go ahead (and potential season saving) grand slam in the 5th inning, his 3rd in 2026 and the 9th of his career.

The fellas and I discussed how nice of a surprise this offensive resurgence has been from Arenado as he is putting up some of the best numbers at the dish we have seen since his MVP caliber season as a Cardinal in 2022 while also pondering the likelihood that Nolan can get to 30 home runs on the season (27 currently) with 3 of the final 6 games being played in his old stomping grounds of Coors Field where Arenado has 139 dingers in his career in the mile high city.

Setting off for the final road trip of the regular season the Snakes will be heading to Coors Field to take on the Colorado Rockies as they continue to battle for their lives in an attempt to make miracles happen and sneak into the playoffs. 

The last few weeks have seen us and other fans throw the term “must-win games” around a bunch but these 3 in Colorado are all truly must win games if the Diamondbacks want to have any real chance at making the final series in San Diego mean anything as a Diamondbacks loss+Padres win, 2 D’Backs losses or 2 Padres wins would put the final nail in the coffin of the Diamondbacks playoff hopes.

Gabe, Brandon and I all felt disgusted that we would have to actually root for the Los Angeles Dodgers to win baseball games (just typing that out makes me want to puke) but that is the reality we are in as a Dodgers sweep of the Padres with the Diamondbacks sweeping the Rockies would set us up for what could most likely feel like its own wild card series against the Padres in San Diego to decide who gets in and who goes to Cancun.