When you step back and look at the upstart Arizona Diamondbacks going 1-2 on the road against the best team in baseball there's nothing to be disappointed or upset about. The Philadelphia Phillies have 11 more wins on the season than the D-backs and five more than the Yankees and Red Sox. Dropping a series in their park is to be expected.
↵Of course, the Diamondbacks don't see it that way. They were rightly feeling mighty confident going in to the City of Brotherly Cheese Steaks and were looking forward to testing their young metal against a team that's been hanging around the top the major leagues long enough to develop a permanent snow pack.
↵The problem is the overconfidence you hear from the D-backs since they took over first place in the NL West from the Giants.
↵Remember, this was always supposed to be a transition year for the Diamondbacks and by that measure they've already exceeded any reasonable goal. But they got greedy and instead of thinking about making the postseason they, perhaps, started setting their sights a bit too high.
↵It's an understandable human reaction that resulted in a team playing with too much pressure and trying too hard to "send a message" to the Phillies and yes, to the national media that's suddenly remembered that Arizona has a professional major league baseball team.
↵The result: four errors in three days; just 11 hits in three games; and getting outscored 15-6. As Kirk Gibson said, "What can you say, they out-performed us offensively and they out-pitched us."
↵It's all part of the learning process for a young team. They went through it against the Giants this year already, starting the season 2-7 before finally taking their first series against The Champs in early August.
↵One thing this team has done well all year is bounce back from bad games and disappointing performances. If they can do that again and play well against a slightly lower-rung opponent in Atlanta, all will be forgotten.
↵The goal is still to win the division and returning home with a 5-5 record from this road trip is completely acceptable for their chances to do just that. The Phillies are history unless the D-backs can continue to play well enough for the next 38 games to earn the chance to face them again in the playoffs.
↵