Tony La Russa had every reason to be brimming with overconfidence. The chief baseball officer of the Diamondbacks had just watched his club finally reach the .500 mark last week in Texas, a significant psychological hurdle if not a significant one in the standings.
His club was performing better than most expected and still hanging around in the race for the National League’s two wild-card berths. Surely it’d be tempting to make a trade to push them over the hump before the July 31 deadline.
But speaking to a reporter after that record-evening win, La Russa didn’t seem overly excited.