Someone once told me a long time ago that baseball is like one giant soap opera for guys.  I’ve expanded that belief to all of sports (I mean think about it….why do we care about Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson or what Shaq really thinks about Kobe?)
But I think it especially holds true in baseball.  6 months.  162 games.  It’s such a long season.

The plot twists one way, then another, then back again.  Major characters are good guys, then bad guys but then are good again when they do something heroic you just don’t expect.  They die….but then somehow comeback to life, either because there was a mix up at the hospital or in the form of their long-lost twin sister.  And really, did Nicki just sleep with Jack?

(Alright, maybe that part isn’t like sports, but you get the drift.)

So here are your Arizona Diamondbacks.  A week ago I pronounced them dead (time of death: 4:01 p.m.).  Gambo called them “irrelevant.”  And in both cases we were right.  And now we’re wrong.  There was a mix up at the hospital.  They have a pulse again.  The EKG machine is chirping.

They’re closer to the Dodgers than the Mets are to the Phillies, than the Twins are to the White Sox or the Red Sox to the Rays.   They’ve won 7 of their last 8 to take a 4 ½ game deficit and shrink it to 2 games….with 6 to play.  Do they have a chance?  According to the number-crunchers they now have a 1 in 10 chance of making the postseason and that sounds about right.  L.A.’s magic number is 5 going into Tuesday night.

There are thousands of ways to spin the numbers. If the Dodgers go 3-3 in their last 6 the D-backs would need to go 5-1 against the Cardinals on the road and Rockies at home to force a one game playoff.  The Dodgers face San Diego at home before going to San Francisco to close out the season.

Working in the D-backs favor:  They close at home against the Rockies, a team they’re 12-3 against this year.  And three of the pitchers the Dodgers will see this week are Jake Peavy, Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum.

Working against the D-backs:  The other three pitchers L.A. gets this week are Wade LeBlanc (not the guy who played Joey in Friends), Shawn Estes and Brad Hennessey.

But think about this; imagine a night where the Dodgers win and the D-backs lose.  The magic number melts from 5 to 3 and the D-backs melt right along with it.

And then we’ll have to wait for next year’s version of The Young and the Frugal.