PHOENIX -- At one point 11 1/2 games behind in the NL West, the Diamondbacks have not had the first half they had hoped for. But with it coming to a close Sunday, they could very well find themselves in a place nearly identical to where they were a year ago.
With a second straight comeback win over the first-place Dodgers by a score of 5-3 Saturday night, the D-backs positioned themselves for a series win that would leave them as much in the division race at the All-Star break as they were last season en route to winning the West.
A win in Sunday's series finale would send the D-backs into the break on a three-game winning streak and no more than 4 1/2 games behind the division leader, which could be either the Dodgers or Giants, depending on Sunday's results. At the break a year ago, the D-backs trailed the Giants by three games.
Having lost three games to the Padres this week, a series split would not represeent sufficient momentum in the D-backs' minds.
"We want to win tomorrow," D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said. "(It will be) a big win tomorrow if we can crank something else off our deficit. That would be healthy for us."
Going into the break with a relatively manageable deficit would be a small victory after an up-and-down first half, one in which it seemed the D-backs could never sustain momentum built over the course of a few games.
"We didn't really go on an extended streak," Gibson said. "We had a good June, but we're trying to regain here. We had a not-very-good start to July, and these are big games for us. Very, very big games for us."
Saturday's game saw the D-backs once again fall behind early, as starter Trevor Cahill surrendered two runs in the first inning on a home run to Jerry Hairston, Jr. But as they did in Friday's 5-3 win, the D-backs rallied in the middle innings to erase a deficit.
There was another hero for another night, as center fielder Gerardo Parra drove in two runs on a fifth-inning double down the left-field line off Chad Billingsley to tie the score at 2-2 before scoring the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly. The D-backs padded the lead with a run in the sixth and one in the eighth on left fielder Jason Kubel's 15th home run of the season.
Billingsley had held the D-backs to two hits through four innings, but they eventually broke through, just as they did the night before against Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. The significance of consecutive come-from-behind wins after a season-worst six-game losing streak was palpable in the clubhouse Saturday.
"It means a lot from where we were a couple days ago," Kubel said. "We beat a very good pitcher tonight, a good team. We felt good about last night, we continued that today and hopefully we do that again tomorrow."
While one school of though says the All-Star break can interrupt a team's momentum, the other contends that it gives teams a chance to recharge mentally and physically. If the latter is true, the D-backs would certainly prefer heading into the break on a positive note and a winning streak to come back to five days later.
"It would be big to win the series, a big momentum boost for the break," Kubel said. "And we'd come back on a good note and hopefully keep it up."
