In their recent five-game winning streak, the Arizona Diamondbacks suddenly were offensive juggernauts. In a four-game period, they put up 33 runs. They were scoring runs almost at will, and were doing it frequently with two outs.
Now, after two games on the road against the Texas Rangers, we are beginning to see the nature of the offense. It is hot and cold -- feast or famine.
Since the start of June, the D-backs are 7-4. Their offense has been great in the wins and terrible in the losses.
In their wins, the offense has amassed 47 runs -- almost seven runs per game. Even a very bad pitching staff can win with an offense like that.
The losses? It's painful. In four losses, Arizona has scored two runs.
The latest offensive fiasco wasted another brilliant outing by Wade Miley, who allowed a single run in almost eight innings.
The starting pitching has been inconsistent, but has evened out its play in the past couple of weeks. So has the bullpen. The defense has been great. The offense, when clicking, is fantastically fun to watch. However, when it is not running on all cylinders, it looks like it isn't running at all.
It's great when the team can pound out seven or eight runs, but when the other games are zero and one runs, it does you no good. It is far better to have an offense that consistently gets you three to four runs a night than to have the Jekyll and Hyde approach.
Consistency -- coaches preach about it all the time. It turns out that it is exactly what baseball teams need if they are going to be contenders.
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