Not bad

Wow, you'd never guess that this was the same team, huh? Three games against the worst team in the league, outscored 28-21. Two games against the best team in the league, and we're up 18-5. Bwah?

Yesterday I was back to the listening to the game, and they sounded great. We gave up 4 runs, all on home runs. We were getting hits, producing runs, keeping our eye on the ball, following through, walking it off, all that advice that you keep getting when you're on a losing streak. Vazquez pitched another great game, only giving up one walk. Cormier gave up his bullpen-pact mandated home run to the first batter, and the locked out the next three. We certainly looked like a team that is contending for division champions, for once. And with LA and San Diego stumbling a bit, we're still in it.

Tangentially, Eric Gagne went back on the disabled list today, and there is some speculation that his season might be over. Without a solid closer, the Dodgers start to become less of a threat.

Looking ahead a bit, we hit Cleveland on Friday, and then a four game set in San Francisco. Cleveland's been running rampant through the NL West the past week, going 6-1 in their past seven games. But they're just a couple games over .500, so I think we can do some damage against them. And I think our set in San Francisco is going to be important. If we want to take the division, we need to make a statement against a division rival.

I won't get to see tonight's game- going to see a play (oh, culture!) but I'm hoping Ortiz can have another good start. We're facing a good pitcher tonight- Jon Garland is trying to pick up his 11th win of the season- but I'm strangely optomistic about it. If Ortiz can keep on his pace from last game, and the bats don't take a night off, we could have a shot at this one. Hopefully it goes well.

Go Diamondbacks!