D-backs ready for tough second half

This story was excerpted from Steve Gilbert’s D-backs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

There’s still a lot of games remaining in 2023, but this past week, the 2024 regular season schedule was released, so let's take a look at some of the more interesting aspects.

After opening this year on the road against the Dodgers, the D-backs open 2024 at home with a four-game series against the Rockies followed by three against the Yankees.

There are plenty of early-season tests, starting with that Yankees series. The D-backs will play at Atlanta (April 5-7), at San Francisco (April 18-21) and at Seattle (April 26-28). In between the Giants and Mariners series, the D-backs have three games in St. Louis, making it an early 10-game trip.

Another tough road trip comes up Aug. 16-25 when the D-backs will go to Tampa, Miami and Boston.

The D-backs will close out the season at home with three-game series against the Giants and Padres.

Back To The Present

There is no easing into the second half of the season for the D-backs, who finished the first half one game behind the Dodgers in the NL West standings.

The D-backs last night opened a nine-game road trip in Toronto, which continues in Atlanta and Cincinnati, all three tough opponents.

“We're a good baseball team,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “We've proven that, we've learned that, and we just got to go out and do our thing and play our game our way. We certainly respect every opponent that we play, but it's really about us. The focus is on us inside of this clubhouse, inside of our dugout to doing things our way. But it is an important road trip, we know the three teams that we're going to be playing are playing great baseball. We're excited about it.”

But it’s not just the first nine games of the second half that are a challenge. The D-backs have one of the tougher second-half schedules in baseball. They’ve got a home series against the Mariners and a four-game set in San Francisco at the end of July and early August.

The D-backs have seven games against the Padres in August, three against the Dodgers, two against the Rangers and another four games against the Reds.

It’s going to be interesting to see how they weather these upcoming challenges.