The Diamondbacks were not themselves in May, both figuratively and literally, and it hurt.
While May was the D-backs’ breakthrough month a year ago, injuries and uncharacteristic struggles at Chase Field kept them from making much of a push in the NL West this time around.
Chris Young and Daniel Hudson missed a little more than half of the month after going on the disabled list within a day of each other in mid-April. Both were missed, and the loss of Young was especially critical for an offense that had trouble scoring runs.
The D-backs, who also lost catcher Miguel Montero with a groin injury for a week and still await the return of shortstop Stephen Drew, scored two or fewer runs in 12 of their 26 games in May, winning only one of those. They scored as many as six runs only six times, and two of those came in losses.
In an odd turnaround from 2011, the D-backs also had trouble at Chase Field, where they were 4-8 last month, winning only one of four series. Their home-series losing streak reached six before they took two of three from Milwaukee last weekend. Those struggles were in sharp contrast to the year before, when the D-backs won the third-most home games (51) in franchise history.
At 11-17, the D-backs recorded their first losing month since April 2011 to slip to 23-28 overall. They were 27-24 through the same number of games last year and were 30-25 at the end of May.
The D-backs can take some solace from history as they attempt to overtake the Dodgers and Giants in the division race.
The Astros were 18-31 and 10 1/2 games out of the playoff race before winning the wild card in 2005, and they went on to make the World Series. The Marlins made an even bigger move in 2003, winning the World Series after trailing the NL East-leading Braves by 11 1/2 games on Memorial Day.
Click here to view the D-backs' report card >>
