When the Diamondbacks began a west-coast trip with a series in San Francisco in late August, hitting coach Dave Magadan recalls feeling pretty good about the state of his offense. It had struggled through the season’s first two months but had mostly found its footing into the middle of the summer, scoring the second-most runs in the league over a 75-game stretch.
And then, as Magadan put it, they came upon a “barren desert” of offensive output.
“Just all of a sudden it was shutout-shutout out of nowhere,” Magadan said, recalling the first two games of that series against the Giants.