The National League West is already wild. Heading into Monday’s games, Arizona and Los Angeles were tied for first place at 35-25, while San Francisco, San Diego, and Colorado are all under .500.
Arizona has been a nice surprise so far, following up an impressive opening stanza by going 18-11 in May games, and ending the month with a six-game winning streak that ended when they ran into the Braves this past weekend. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. paced the offense last month, playing in 24 games, he collected at least one hit in 20 of them, and reached base safely in all but two. He hit .352 for the month, plated 18 runs on eight homers, and really hasn’t showed any sign of slowing down. At 29 years old, he’s having his best pro season ever, is pretty versatile defensively, and a key part to what is happening in the desert.
The Diamondbacks have put together a nice mix of veterans and young players, and play an exciting style of baseball that is a ton of fun to watch. Over the past 30 days, Arizona is in the top 10 in team batting average and top seven in OBP. They have aggressive base runners and stolen base threats scattered throughout the batting order. Because of that, you can’t really count them out of any game until the final out is recorded. 17-29 in one-run games just a season ago, the Snakes are 10-8 this year.
Zac Gallen has led the pitching staff, was 3-1 last month, and is the undisputable ace of the rotation, but Merrill Kelly has also been on a nice run. He was 4-0 last month and hasn’t lost a game since April 22, allowing just nine earned runs in 31.1 May innings while striking out 39 batters. He has been the perfect compliment to Gallen while the rest of the rotation tries to fall into place. Zach Davies, recently returned from an oblique injury, hasn’t been great, and Ryne Nelson has been a roller coaster as well. Rookie Brandon Pfaadt, while his future is bright, showed us he’s not quite ready for prime time and, while 25-year-old Tommy Henry has been better recently, I’d still like to see a couple more solid outings. Arizona’s biggest weakness was, and still is, its bullpen, and while this team has rapidly inserted itself into the upper echelon of National League teams, there is still plenty of room for improvement. As the trade deadline nears, I’m curious to see if their savvy front office has any tricks up their sleeve to improve the pitching staff of a team that has found itself in the thick of a pennant race.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a team that is perennially built on the strength of its starting pitching and, as the injuries to the starting rotation begin to pile up, there may be some room for concern. Maybe. Julio Urias, Walker Buehler, Dustin May, Ryan Pepiot, and Phil Bickford are all currently on the injured list, and those guys alone could make up the starting rotation for a 90-win team. L.A. still has Clayton Kershaw slinging hammers, Tony Gonsolin pitching well, and rookie Bobby Miller, but this situation could get pretty ugly. Kershaw seemingly never disappoints on the mound, but was just 1-3 last month and posted a 2.2 walks/9, his highest in over a decade. Gonsolin was 3-1 in six starts, but lacks those elite K rates that allow pitchers to sustain success. Noah Syndergaard is probably an afterthought at this point, and the Dodgers’ best hope lies on a speedy recovery for Urias, and continued prosperity for Miller, who has been great in his first three MLB starts, surrendering just two earned runs, and collecting two wins while striking out nearly a batter per inning. His walk rates are down from his minor league days, and he could be just the shot in the arm this team needs.
The Dodgers still went 18-10 last month, sport one of the best lineups in baseball, and that makes up for a lot of the pitching woes. Over their last 27 games the Dodgers are second in MLB in OPS, second in home runs, and third in runs scored. Freddie Freeman played through May with scorched earth under his cleats, batting .400 in 115 at-bats, he plated 26 runs while posting a 1.184 OPS. Will Smith hit .318 with five homers, J.D. Martinez hit .311 in 18 games and has five homers in his last seven, while the always reliable Mookie Betts also contributed nine home runs last month. This is a very potent lineup that will keep Los Angeles in most games, regardless of who is on the mound.
At 29-30 and 5.5 games back, the San Francisco Giants lead the list of teams that are, for whatever reason, on the outside looking in. 17-12 in May, the Giants feature a streaky lineup that, due to its long ball ability, can put up runs in a hurry, and also one of the best young pitchers in baseball and a pretty good bullpen. They are also, however, 19-20 against sub .500 teams, and that’s not going to get it done in this division.
At just 26 years old, Logan Webb is entering his third full MLB season and has yet to toss 200 frames in a season, but leads the National League this year with 79 innings to date. He was 3-0 in his five starts last month, but got just 12 supporting runs in those games, and is 4-6 on the year despite carrying a 2.85 ERA and 1.03 WHIP while posting the lowest walk rates of his career. Surrounded in the rotation by a couple of inconsistent pitchers in Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Cobb, along with the streaky lineup, there is potential for things to go south more often than not. DeSclafani was 3-3 last month, but was 2-3 through his first five starts with just nine supporting runs before the Giants erupted for 14 against the Pirates on May 29. He also allowed 43 baserunners across 37.1 innings, so it can’t all be on the offense.
Alex Cobb is actually enjoying a nice season, and was 3-1 in his May starts, but injuries to Ross Stripling and Alex Wood are going to lead to more starts for Sean Manaea and Jakob Junis while most Giants fans are probably just waiting to see what Kyle Harrison can offer to the big club.
The San Diego Padres are most likely one of the bigger surprises in baseball, but for all the wrong reasons. After winning 89 games last summer, and taking a Wild Card all the way to the NLCS, the Friars dumped a duffel bag full of honey buns on shortstop Xander Bogaerts in hopes that he could push this team over the edge and into the World Series. What has actually happened has not been so great. The Padres followed up a sub-par April by going 10-16 in May. At 27-32, and fourth place in the West, this is not what anyone was expecting. The starting pitching has been pitiful, the offense has been worse, and the team as a whole has just been disappointing.
Having said all that, Juan Soto is starting to show signs of life. Batting .333 through May, he cranked out five dingers and walked 25 times versus 19 strikeouts, but this team is underperforming at the plate. There isn’t a player on this roster hitting higher than .265. This is the third-highest paid team in the league, and they are in the bottom half in OBP, AVG, OPS, runs scored, and they’re 15th in home runs. That’s just not good enough.
It would be an understatement to say that the Padres are struggling at the plate. The starting pitching hasn’t been much better, and other than Michael Wacha, no one really jumps off the page at you. Wacha was 3-0 in May, lowered his ERA from 6.75 to 3.45, and allowed just 23 baserunners in 32 innings, but until the starting nine puts it together at the plate, I wouldn’t expect to much success from the pitching staff or otherwise.
The Colorado Rockies were 15-13 in May, much better than Padres, but still sit 9.5 games out of first place, and sport a starting rotation that one would expect to see on an expansion team. There isn’t a whole lot to be excited about in Denver, but Ryan McMahon had a nice hot streak to close out the month, homering in four straight games and is still racking up some hits into the early part of June. Ezequiel Tovar has fun to watch too, but losing Brendan Rodgers, C.J. Cron, and now Kris Bryant really lets a lot of air out of the ballon. This was never going to be Colorado’s year anyway, and next year probably won’t be their year either. However, as they continue to develop their young players, they could at least be an exciting team to keep an eye on.