Arizona Diamondbacks Offense Looks Unstoppable Against San Francisco

The Arizona Diamondbacks’ offense looks like it could be one of their strengths this season after a strong first series.

Arizona Diamondbacks and offensive juggernaut should not be in the same sentence, but that’s exactly what Arizona has been through the first four games of the season. Sure, it’s only one series in the hitter-friendly park of Chase Field, but the Diamondbacks’ offense looked close to unstoppable against a very good San Francisco Giants starting rotation.

Facing the likes of Madison Bumgarner, whose near-perfect game now seems like ages ago, Johnny Cueto, Matt Moore and Jeff Samardzija, the Diamondbacks scored 27 runs, tying for the most in the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers, to start the season 3-1.

In the long run, Arizona might return to being the underwhelming offense most expected at the start of the season, even if they ranked 10th in runs last season. Though right now they’re hitting and scoring runs like they’re one of the best offensive teams in the league. Considering they’re averaging 6.75 runs per game, they might be.

It all starts at the top of the lineup with the players that get the most at-bats. A.J. Pollock has been their leadoff hitter in all four games with Paul Goldschmidt hitting third. Chris Owings and David Peralta have rotated in and out of the second spot in the lineup based on the starting pitcher.

It hasn’t mattered whose been second in the lineup, though. Arizona has seemingly hit everything.

Pollock is hitting .421/.450/.737 with five RBI, which is second most in the National League, Goldschmidt is hitting .333/.444/.733 with two home runs and Owings is hitting .313/.389/.375. Peralta hasn’t been as successful, hitting just .154/.214/.462, but he went 2-for-4 with a home run in the two-hole to end the series.

Getting on base or hitting home runs has set the table for the bottom of the order. It’s evident by the four previously mentioned players accounting for 12 of Arizona’s 27 runs this season (44.4 percent).

Jake Lamb, who hits fourth in the lineup, has already driven in five runs despite only going 3-for-15 against the Giants. There are simply more opportunities with men almost always on base.

Having Goldschmidt lead the NL in runs, and Pollock and Lamb tied for fourth, is also a testament to their ability to hit with runners in scoring position. Arizona recorded four hits with runners in scoring position in all three wins, but only went 1-for-7 in their loss. Still, the Diamondbacks hit an impressive 13-for-33 (.394) with runners in scoring position against the Giants.

Two of Arizona’s top three hitters also recorded at least two hits in each of their wins, but none recorded multiple hits in their lone loss. Having the top of lineup average 5.7 hits per game will usually lead to runs, or scoring chances at the very least.

Most people might have only seen Arizona’s first game of the season when Bumgarner brought a perfect game into the sixth inning. He ended up allowing three runs in seven innings, but San Francisco’s infamous bullpen blew the game and allowed the Diamondbacks to win on a walk-off single by Owings.

While the Diamondbacks didn’t have problems manufacturing hits the rest of the series – their 43 hits lead the majors – they didn’t score many runs until later in the game.

Here’s a breakdown of when their runs came:

• 1-3 innings: 1
• 4-6 innings: 18
• 7-9 innings: 8

One might immediately attribute the late rallies to the Giants’ still struggling bullpen, but all four starters went at least five innings, which is when Arizona scored most often. While Moore allowed three unearned runs, San Francisco’s starters also had a 6.35 ERA against Arizona compared to the bullpen’s 6.55 ERA. It’s evident that Arizona simply hit San Francisco hard all series.

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As a team they hit .303/.361/.514 with six home runs, and eight players had a double. Hitting .303 obviously won’t last, but that’s still extremely high even in a four-game sample size. The Washington Nationals are the next closest team, hitting .286, and only five teams have hit .275 or better this season.

In fact, only 34 hitters in the entire league are hitting .303 or better to start the season. To no surprise, Pollock, Owings and Goldschmidt are among this group.

It’s hard to argue that Arizona didn’t look like the best offensive team in the majors to start the season, as they rank among the top two teams in almost every statistical offensive category – runs, hits, doubles, home runs, total bases, RBI, batting average, slugging percentage.

Their offense will need to stay hot with the Cleveland Indians coming to town. Cleveland scored 21 runs in their first three games, plus have one of the best rotations in the league.

Next: Bundy's Opening Start a Fluke?

Not having a designated hitter might help slow down Cleveland, but it could be another shootout in the desert with the way these two teams have hit to start the year.