When the final out was recorded against the Diamondbacks by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona found themselves with another loss bringing their consecutive game losing streak to eight. This is the longest such streak this season. You have to go back to those horrendous seasons of 2004 and 2021 to see a streak longer than that in Diamondbacks history.

It’s funny, it was not that long ago that we were talking about how the Diamondbacks had not been shut out of a game and had not been swept in a series during the 2023 season and now here we are.

Arizona has not won a game in the month of August. Going back in the history books I wondered what was the worst month from a winning percentage for the month of August? That would be 8-18 for the month, a feat that was set by the 2004 Diamondbacks who were racing to the bottom of the standings and would finish the year 51-111.

The positive, if there is one, is that at least Arizona cannot be that bad as they have already won 57 games this season so even if we do not win another game for the remainder of the year we can rest easy knowing that we weren’t that bad.

I will be the first to admit, if by some reason the Dbacks don’t win another game in 2023 I will be hard pressed to believe this wasn’t the worst team in franchise history. The question I am starting to ask is, how deep is this hole they are digging for themselves?

Since July 1 when the Diamondbacks were in first place and a season high 16 games over .500 it has been a freefall that seems like they will never reach bottom. I think this feels so bad because of how high that mark was at the time and going into the all-star break this team had us dreaming of the post season, something that hasn’t been a possibility since 2017.

Thinking back over the past 25 seasons, this collapse has a very real reminder of 2018. Just a year removed from making the playoffs, Arizona found itself in first place at the beginning of September. Then on a fateful road trip to Los Angeles to face the Dodgers, Arizona completely choked.

The team would play the most awful baseball I can recall that month and won just 8 games that month falling well out of the playoff picture and never really recovering to this very day. It was as though the Baseball Gods have seen fit to punish Diamondbacks fans for all the early successes they had in 1999-2002.

We are getting dangerously close to breaking out the Kevin Costner monologue in Bull Durham when the pitching coach came out to the mound to see why everyone was congregated there during the game.

“Well, Nuke’s scared because his eyelids are jammed and his old man’s here. We need a live… is it a live rooster? We need a live rooster to take the curse off Jose’s glove and nobody seems to know what to get Millie or Jimmy for their wedding present.”
– Crash Davis

 

I’m thinking maybe bring some candlesticks or find out where Millie is registered and getting a place-setting or maybe a silverware pattern and bringing it to the game on Friday when the San Diego Padres come to down.

In the meantime, perhaps someone should go check with the Chase Field grounds crew and see if we can get them to hide their shovels for a little while. The last thing we need is for this team to continue to be digging a hole.