Jordan Hamm
The 60-game stage is set.
Major League Baseball announced the schedule for each team on Monday, and the Diamondbacks can continue to push towards a potential 2020 season. The team will play exclusively against the National League West and American League West teams.
You can check out the full season here.
Last year, the Diamondbacks only played their National League West foes and the Texas Rangers. They did not play the Oakland Athletics, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Seattle Mariners. Of the six opponents they did face in 2019, the team posted a 41-39 record with 426 runs scored and 386 runs against.
The team will go up against some of last year’s best teams.
Of the six teams to win 97 games or more in 2019, the Diamondbacks will face three of those teams (Astros, Dodgers and Athletics).
Notable Dates:
Opening on the Road
The Diamondbacks open up the season with a four-game series in San Diego against the Padres and a two-game series in Texas. The first four games will be a chance for the Snakes to get their proverbial feet under them with a pretty familiar foe.
Home Alone
It’s going to be strange to be at the friendly confines without fans, but that’s a challenge all teams will face in every sport in the country this year.
The good news on July 30th?
The Diamondbacks come home for the first time.
The not so great news?
The home-stand is a seven-game stint against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros over the span of eight days. The team is certainly going up against some big guns for the first time at home.
Back-to-Back with the Bays
While the schedule is more geographically focused, every time a team doesn’t need to jump on a plane could be beneficial in this mental and physical sprint. Between August 19th-22nd, the Snakes head up to the Bay Area to take on the A’s and then the Giants. Could they stay in the same hotel over that span? Maybe, but a quick trip across the bay won’t be as taxing as another flight.
The Mid-season Gauntlet
Schedule makers may have given the Diamondbacks that courtesy in the Bay Area because that is right in the heart of 17 days without an off-day, over 25 percent of the season.
That span is as follows:
vs San Diego (four games)
vs Oakland (two games)
at Oakland (two games)
at San Francisco (three games)
vs Rockies (four games)
vs San Francisco (three games)
The club has one day off, and then another 13-game stint. It could truly be the make-or-break span for the team.
Ending On a High Note?
For as brutal as that stretch from mid-August to mid-September, the Diamondbacks do end favorably with two off-days in the span of a week and facing the Rockies and Rangers at home.
Now the stage is officially set, and let’s hope the systems and protocols in place keep all who are in the stadiums safe and we can see ourselves some real baseball.
