In topsy-turvy NL, overlooked D'backs find a way

Closer Jose Valverde is a big reason why the D'backs are 32-19 in one-run games. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Playoff Races At A Glance AL East W L Pct. GB Red Sox** 94 65 .591 -- Yankees** 92 67 .579 2 AL Central W L Pct. GB Indians* 94 65 .591 -- AL West W L Pct. GB Angels* 92 67 .579 -- AL Wild Card W L Pct. GB Yankees** 92 67 .579 -- NL East W L Pct. GB Mets 87 72 .547 -- Phillies 87 72 .547 -- NL Central W L Pct. GB Cubs 83 76 .522 -- Brewers 81 78 .509 2 NL West W L Pct. GB Diamondbacks 89 70 .560 -- Padres 88 71 .553 1 Rockies 87 72 .547 2 NL Wild Card W L Pct. GB Padres 88 71 .553 -- Phillies 87 72 .547 1 Mets 87 72 .547 1 Rockies 87 72 .547 1 *clinched division title **clinched playoff spot

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The playoff picture in the National League today is no clearer than it was a week ago. The Mets are falling, but they still have a fingernail hold on the NL East lead. The Phillies are rising -- they, too, have a grip on that same lead -- but they haven't won a thing. The Rockies are as good, right now, as any team has been all season long, yet they're still trailing in both the NL West and the wild-card races.

The Cubs are fumbling. The Brewers are scrambling. The Padres are hanging on for their ever-loving lives. Which leaves us with Arizona, nursing a one-game lead over the Padres and a two-game lead over the Rockies in the NL West.

Hey! What about the Diamondbacks?

The red-headed stepchild of baseball's statistical set ("No way does that kid belong here," they say), the Diamondbacks have become almost an afterthought in this pennant race, an enigma wrapped up in an anomaly bathed in Sedona Red. Analysts have been pointing to all sorts of numbers to indicate how the Diamondbacks are playing over their heads. (Run differential, which shows that Arizona has been outscored by 11 runs this season, is a favorite.)

The fact is, though, that Arizona is the only team in the NL -- and could end up the only team in either league -- that will not have a losing month in '07.

Playing over their heads? Every single month for an entire season?

Taken apart, piece by piece, the Diamondbacks are not very impressive. They have a good bullpen -- really, it's the backbone of the team -- with a top-tier closer in Jose Valverde. They have a shutdown starter in Brandon Webb, one of the best in the league. They have some other ... nice ... pitchers. The Diamondbacks have some nice hitters, too. Nice. That's the D'backs.

But not one of the young position players that the Diamondbacks were counting on this year -- Stephen Drew, Carlos Quentin, Chris Snyder, Conor Jackson, not even Chris Young -- has had much better than an average season overall. The rookie Young has 32 home runs, but he's hitting only .236 with a .295 on-base percentage.

Taken apart, the Diamondbacks look to be nothing more than a really average bunch of ballplayers.

Still, the Diamondbacks have won, steadily and for the whole season, forgetting the big losses, winning the close games (a stunning 32-19 in one-run games) and rolling into this final weekend with 89 wins. That's the highest win total, if you didn't realize, in the league.

Overrated, they say? Given the spotty years by some of the kids on the baby 'Backs, you could make an argument that these guys still have their best in front of them.

"It doesn't feel," general manager Josh Byrnes told me the other day, "like all the stars have aligned."

The Diamondbacks will try to line things up this weekend when they play the resurgent Rockies in Denver in the unlikeliest of last-weekend showdowns. The Rockies, with their 10-4 win over the Dodgers on Thursday night, have won 11 straight games, moving within a game of the wild-card lead. The Diamondbacks, after an early-week stumble against the Pirates, righted things with an 8-0 win in Pittsburgh.

This weekend -- or, at the latest, early next week if teams are forced into tiebreakers -- the NL playoff picture will finally come into final focus. And when it does, don't be surprised if the Diamondbacks are standing in the middle of it all, just where they've been all along.

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