D-Backs Notebook: D-backs experience ups, downs against AL East

Prior to the start of the 2007 season, nearly every baseball pundit expected the American League East to be the strongest division in the majors, while the National League West was generally looked at as one of baseball’s weakest.

With baseball nearing the halfway mark, the opposite has proven to be true.

Outside of the Boston Red Sox’s emergence as the favorite to win the World Series, the AL East has underwhelmed.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Diamondbacks, along with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, have been among the top teams in the National League all season.

How would the D-backs fare when interleague play forced the two divisions to collide this month?

Let’s just say the results have been mixed.

Before starting interleague play, Arizona had won 11 of 13 and surged toward the top of the NL West.

But the D-backs dropped two of three when hosting the Red Sox and followed that up with three consecutive losses to the suddenly red-hot New York Yankees.

Red Sox invasion

The Red Sox arrived in Chase Field as baseball’s top club, with a fearsome batting order, a top-notch starting rotation and one of baseball’s best young closers.

Each of the three games drew over 40,000 spectators, with the June 9 contest setting a Chase Field record at 49,826.

Josh Beckett opened up the series by shutting down the D-backs lineup and earning his ninth straight win in the 10-3 Sox victory.

Arizona had Game 2 all but wrapped up, after Micah Owings submitted another quality start.

But the D-backs’ bullpen couldn’t hold the lead, giving the potent Red Sox hitters a chance to squeak out a 4-3 win.

Arizona returned to the win column on June 10 during the highly anticipated pitching matchup between Daisuke Matzusaka and Randy Johnson.

The “Big Unit” got the best of Dice-K in a thrilling 5-1 win where Johnson tallied nine strikeouts in six innings, while the struggling Diamondbacks’ offense was aided by a two-run throwing error, courtesy of veteran Red Sox reliever, Mike Timlin.

As a member of the Yankees, Johnson struggled mightily in his appearances against the Red Sox, but he displayed the blazing fastball and unhittible slider that have made him one of baseball’s best left-handed hurlers.

Yankee massacre

However, the positive momentum from Johnson’s outstanding start was quickly erased when the D-backs traveled to Yankee Stadium to take on Johnson’s previous employers.

Every Diamondback fan remembers the squad’s previous encounter with the Yankees, when Luis Gonzalez blooped a single off of Mariano Rivera to bring the World Series trophy back to Arizona.

New York didn’t even the score by any means, but it did exact some revenge by sweeping the Diamondbacks and pulling over the .500 mark for the first time since April.

Earlier in the month, the Yankees had dropped to the bottom of the standings and the sports world was buzzing about what could possibly be wrong with baseball’s most expensive franchise.

After sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates prior to Arizona’s visit, the Yankees—especially Bobby Abreu—have rediscovered their groove and have their sights set on capturing the American League wild card spot.

Abreu took charge of the opening game last Tuesday with a first-inning three-run homer, which gave Chien-Ming Wang plenty of support in the Yankees’ 4-1 win.

Arizona dropped the next two games by a combined score of 14-3, suffering through another one of those trademark offensive dry spells.

The D-backs needed to rebound against the lowly Baltimore Orioles, otherwise, the streaking Padres and Dodgers would pull away in the NL West race.

Bouncing back

Arizona bounced back in fine fashion on Friday, with Orlando Hudson’s eighth-inning pinch-hit home run propelling the D-backs to a 7-3 win.

With the 8-4 win on Saturday and the 6-4 win on Sunday, the D-backs became the first National League team to win 40 games.

However, the good news came to an abrupt end on Monday when Arizona arrived back in Phoenix and dropped an ugly 10-2 game to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Arizona has yet to beat its fellow 1998 expansion partners in its first seven tries.

The bad news kept coming on Monday when Johnson made yet another trip to the 15-day disabled list with tightness in his lower back.

Johnson saw a specialist yesterday afternoon, and the tests revealed a herniated disk in his back, prompting questions about whether he would be able to pitch the rest of the season.

“He does have a bulge in there, a herniation,” manager Bob Melvin said before the Diamondbacks played Tampa Bay on Tuesday night. “Obviously not the news we want to hear, yet he thinks he is healthy enough to go ahead and prepare for his next start. When that is, we’re obviously not sure.”

Johnson is 4-2 with a 3.52 ERA in nine starts, and he has 70 strikeouts and 11 walks in 53 2-3 innings. Melvin said it’s unclear when Johnson’s latest injury occurred.

The Diamondbacks wrap up their set against the Devil Rays today at 12:40 PST.

After a day off tomorrow, the D-backs will host a three-game set with the Orioles this weekend before a big four-game series against the Dodgers, starting on Monday.

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