How the Diamondbacks rallied to become baseball's most dangerous team

The Diamondbacks already had the hottest hand in the National League coming into the Monday holiday, winners of 10 straight, including the first sweep of the MLB-best Los Angeles Dodgers all season. It was a run of success that had pulled Arizona ahead by six games in the National League wild-card race, the widest such margin that any leader had held all season in the NL’s consolation standings.

However, in game one of their second series in less than a week’s time with those same Dodgers, the Diamondbacks announced their presence in a emphatic manner that only means trouble for the rest of the NL field down the stretch. Because on the back of a four home run night from J.D. Martinez and strong showing on the mound from Robbie Ray, the Diamondbacks thumped the Dodgers 13-0 and claimed their 10th straight win over an NL West opponent.

It is a run that serves as justification for over a year of mixed signals for the future of the Diamondbacks, a franchise that has in the last year endured as many starts, stops and restarts as any legitimate competitor in this year’s pennant chase.

It would be hard to blame any of the Arizona faithful for having a strong feeling of “it’s about time” regarding the success of the Diamondbacks this year. Because it is the type of season that was anticipated over a year ago, when the team was coming off a massive winter spending spree that was aimed at definitively crashing the two-team party between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants, both of whom had monopolized postseason representation from the National League West since 2011.

It was a spirited effort led by a shocking $206.5 million deal that lured Zack Greinke away from the Dodgers, and aided by the eye-popping decision to move Dansby Swanson to the Atlanta in exchange for Shelby Miller, just months after making Swanson the top overall pick in the 2015 Draft. These were the latest in a string of risky, all-in moves aimed to jolt Arizona back into the ranks of relevancy in the segregated NL West standings.

But instead of instantly making the D-backs a player, it seemed as if they had played themselves. A year after finishing second in the NL Cy Young race, Greinke posted the worst season of his career, as he struggled mightily with a bad back. And while Grienke struggled to find himself, Miller was completely lost from the get-go, posting a 6.15 ERA over 20 excruciating starts. Add in the loss of All-Star A.J. Pollock to a broken elbow in spring training, the deterioration of the much of the rest of the veteran-laded everyday roster and a handful of youngsters trust too soon into the fray and it was a trash heap of a season which lost its way before it even got off the ground.

In end, the D-backs found themselves further away from getting over the playoff hump than when they started. It was a disappointing, 93-loss season that found the club 10 games worse than where they landed the year prior. It was a textbook year for heads to roll, and they did with both general manager Dave Stewart and manager Chip Hale being shown the door at season’s end.

In the wake of the disaster, Arizona found itself at a crossroads of sorts, with a roster that had not been able to prove its mettle, and decisively in need of new guidance. Enter Mike Hazen and Torey Lovullo, a duo that beelined from Boston to the desert to bring a jolt of life to both the front office practices and on-field product.

And while the jokes of Arizona becoming ‘Boston West’ are almost too easy to make, the quick turnaround that the Diamondbacks are experiencing are eerily familiar to the rapid resurrection that the ‘real’ Red Sox have experienced over the last year as well. Because in 2012, the year before the Red Sox won the World Series last, they managed only 69 wins on the year – the exact win total of last season’s Diamondbacks. Whether it be purely by happenstance or not, it is undeniable that the combination of Hazen and Lovullo are unquestionably a perfect fit to rebuild the Diamondbacks.

Could Greinke bounce back? Is the how bad will the Miller trade cripple them? Can A.J. Pollock stay healthy? Is the bullpen any good? Could they already be headed towards another rebuild? All of these questions surrounding a team that only had one truly dependable part headed into the year, in the form of baseball’s most undersold star – first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. But even his regular orbit around the NL MVP award had not been enough to pick up the club out of obscurity, as the team needed a culture shift as much as it did another middle of the order bat or $100 million dollar pitcher.

But now, five months into their first season overseeing operations  together in Arizona, most of these questions have been answered in an emphatically positive fashion. Grienke is back among the NL's elite on the mound, while Pollock's elbow woes are a thing of the past. While the Miller trade still ranks among the worst of the last decade, the Walker acquisition covered for it. Any thoughts of a rebuild are dead and buried, as the D-backs are adding on, not taking things apart.

Amid it all, Lovullo finds himself as a favorite for NL Manager of the Year in his rookie managerial season, while Hazen has propped together a roster that is capable of waging war with any team in the National League. On the year, Arizona ranks second in the NL in ERA and fourth in runs scored.

While producing runs was never a problem (Arizona finished fifth in the NL a year ago), the resurgence of the pitching staff has been nothing short of a miracle. Led by the revitalization of Grienke, who is a leading candidate for NL Comeback Player of the Year, as well as the maturation and subsequent breakthroughs of Walker and lefty Robbie Ray, the Diamondbacks staff has shaved over a run and half from its team ERA since finishing dead last in the NL last year.

Despite seeing that increase in potency from his rotation, Hazen was not set to rest on just on his lineup either. He continued to show a flair for the dramatic with the mid-August strike to acquire the heavy-hitting Martinez from Detroit, a move has paid off for Arizona, as he has out hit his Detroit total of 16 long balls in 17 fewer games since trading leagues. He is the cherry on top of a lineup that is trending towards boasting three players with 30 home runs and 80 RBI between Goldschmidt, Martinez and third baseman Jake Lamb.

Without a doubt, the Diamondbacks have put the National League on notice as the regular season dwindles down. But more than that, they have also quickly made amends for drifting off the road that was promised just over a year ago. Armed not only with a cadre of awards candidates on the field, but finally possessing the right mixture of shot-callers off it as well, the Dodgers – as well as the rest of the National League – would be right to be afraid of the Diamondbacks. And not simply this season, but well beyond it. Baseball’s biggest party crashers have announced their presence for 2017 and beyond.