For some perspective on the Arizona Diamondbacks — and with the prospect of Tuesday night being their final game of the season — we take you back to March 29 at Chase Field, in a small office across from the clubhouse at Chase Field.
There sat general manager Kevin Towers, looking forlorn and despondent as he did his best to answer reporters’ questions about a Diamondbacks team that, with mere days until the regular season began, still had more questions surrounding it than answers
The D-backs were 12-25 in spring training, tied for the worst record in the majors. SB Nation Arizona told fans to brace themselves for another long year.
The Diamondbacks struggled with the fundamentals. They had questions about the back end of their starting rotation and they had yet to name a starting shortstop with Stephen Drew hurt and a starting first baseman.
Towers was even talking about parting ways with players who weren’t on board with what he and manager Kirk Gibson expected.
Well, look at the D-backs now. It al worked out surprisingly well. The pitching staff was fantastic. There were clutch hits spread among so many players. Players overachieved. And here are the D-backs in the playoffs.
"You lay out a vision or a philosophy of what you want to accomplish, certain goals and then you need everybody to pull together. We were able to do that," Gibson said before Tuesday’s NL Division Series Game 3.
"We’re well prepared for where we’re at and it is what it is. We’re down by two games and we’ve had magic all year, been able to overcome," he added.
Gibson said the mood in the clubhouse was "normal" before the game. Which is to say business as usual, that the D-backs are retaining the approach they’ve had to games all season long.