DBacks Stun The Dodgers With A Comeback Against Kenley Jansen In The 9th And A Walk-Off In The 15th

I don’t feel like the Dbacks got the respect that they deserved in 2017. With National League Manager of the Year Torey Lovullo at the helm, Arizona finished last season with the second best run differential in the National League. The only team that was better than them in that department was, of course, the division rival LA Dodgers.

With the Dodgers locking up the NL West by 11 games, the Dbacks were forced to play in the Wild Card game against the Colorado Rockies, despite having a better record than the NL Central champion Chicago Cubs. Arizona dismissed the Rockies from the postseason before running into the buzzsaw that was the Clayton Kershaw-led Dodgers. LA swept the Dbacks in three games before eventually being dismissed themselves in the seventh game of the World Series.

Nobody remembers a good regular season, though. You’ve gotta do it in October to be both remembered and respected, and the Dodgers snuffed out those hopes real quick. Could this be the year that the Dbacks get some respect, though? It’s the first week of the season, so we’re obviously dealing with a small sample size, but after last night’s comeback victory (twice), the Dbacks are off to a 3-1 start to lead the division, while the Dodgers have stumbled out of the gate to a 2-3 start.

Are the Dodgers still going to win the division? More than likely, yes. But there’s been all this talk about World Series hangovers and the entire conversation has revolved around the defending champion Houston Astros. Well, what about the Dodgers? While the team who wins it all has certainly felt the effects of a deep postseason run, the World Series hangover has traditionally been felt worse by the team who went all that way and lost. Is there an opening here for the Dbacks to make some noise in the NL West? Stay tuned.

PS — Yeah, I’m actually a little worried about Kenley Jansen. His velocity is down, his location is off and he’s getting tagged. If this continues, then I wouldn’t be shocked if he got a little breather on the disabled list.