Arizona Diamondbacks tie MLB record with 22nd straight road loss
The Arizona Diamondbacks' unfathomable road struggles reached near-unprecedented heights on Wednesday night in a 13-7 loss to the host San Francisco Giants from Oracle Park.
The D-backs have lost 22 consecutive road games, tying the 1963 New York Mets and the 1943 Philadelphia Athletics for the longest road losing streak since 1900.
Overall, the D-backs have lost 13 in a row, 27 of their past 29 and 36 of their past 41. They were 15-3 on May 2, and now they're 20-49, owners of the worst record in the majors.
The D-backs have lost 13 straight two times over the course of the past month, becoming the first team with multiple 13-game losing streaks through an entire season since the 1962 Mets. That Mets team lost 120 games, still a modern-era record.
Arizona's last road win was way back on April 25, when Madison Bumgarner pitched seven no-hit innings in the second game of a doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves. Now Bumgarner is one of four starting pitchers on the injured list, along with Luke Weaver, Taylor Widener and Zac Gallen, though Gallen will be activated to start Thursday's finale in San Francisco.
It has been a rough series for the D-backs. They trailed by a run in the eighth inning in Monday's series opener, but the Giants promptly tacked on a couple of insurance runs to pull away. Tuesday offered their most difficult defeat yet. The D-backs jumped out to a 7-0 lead and blew it on an eighth-inning grand slam by Mike Yastrzemski, marking the first time this season -- in 164 chances -- that any team had blown a seven-run lead.
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The D-backs jumped out to another lead on Wednesday, scoring two first-inning runs off Anthony DeSclafani. But Merrill Kelly, who had lost seven consecutive starts, allowed four runs in a 47-pitch bottom of the first that saw the Giants bat around. Keury Mella allowed four more runs in the fourth and Ryan Butcher allowed another five in the fifth. When Brandon Belt took Butcher deep with two on and one out in that inning, the Giants held a 13-2 lead and had already accumulated five home runs.
The D-backs have allowed 64 home runs on the road this season, by far the most in the majors. Since May 3, they're second-to-last in OPS, second-to-last in runs per game, last in starters' ERA and last in reliever WHIP.
A loss on Thursday would put them in the company of teams such as the 1890 Pittsburgh Innocents and the 1889 Louisville Colonels -- the only franchises to suffer 23 or more consecutive road losses, according to research from the Elias Sports Bureau.
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