PHOENIX -- It feels like the Diamondbacks’ postseason hopes are slipping away from them.
While there are still eight games left to play -- and three against the Padres who Arizona trails in the race for the No. 3 National League Wild Card spot -- the Diamondbacks need to win games, and that's something that has eluded them of late.
Friday night in front of a packed crowd as they kicked off a weekend celebration of the 2001 World Series champion team, the Diamondbacks fell, 9-2, to the Yankees.
Here's what you need to know about the game and where Arizona stands:
The Padres are pulling away
The loss was the third in a row for the Diamondbacks, who have dropped six of their past eight games.
Arizona now trails the Cubs, Phillies and Padres, who are all tied for the top NL Wild Card spot, by five games. While the Cubs and Phillies both lost, the Padres continued their hot play of late, beating the Marlins.
The Padres have won nine of their past 10 games and show no signs of slowing down. The Diamondbacks have comforted themselves for a while now with the fact that they will face the Padres three times to close out the regular season in San Diego, but they very well could be eliminated by that point unless they pick up the pace.
"We know where we're at," Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. "We know what's going on. We can't afford to worry about things we can't control. So my message to these guys is to take care of what you know you can take care of, do your job, focus on what's going to help this team win a baseball game and keep plowing at it, keep just driving toward that."
A big first inning by the Yankees set the tone
Eduardo Rodriguez has been a stopper for the Diamondbacks this year. The veteran lefty pitched Venezuela to the World Baseball Classic title in March and made his first All-Star team in July.
If there has been one glaring weakness in his 15-win season, it's been his performance in the first inning of his starts.
Rodriguez entered the game with a 6.60 ERA in first innings of his starts, and Friday night, that inning was a struggle for him once again as he allowed five runs on three hits as the Yankees drew three walks and made him throw a whopping 45 pitches in the inning.
"That first-inning thing popped up again," Lovullo said. "He gave up five runs in the first inning, and we just never really got a chance to get any traction or any footing. It takes a little bit out of your [offensive] game plan. You got to have guys go up there and be patient to give E-Rod a little bit of rest after [45] pitches. It was just a really rough start to this game."
Despite the high pitch count, Rodriguez allowed just two more runs after the first and managed to give the Diamondbacks 5 1/3 innings.
"It's something I need to work on," Rodriguez said of his first-inning struggles. "The command is there [later]. It's just in that first inning that it's always off or something, but after that, the results are always good, so it's something I need to work on."
It doesn't get any easier
The Diamondbacks had their hands full with Gerrit Cole on Friday and as good as Cole is, Saturday night's starter for the Yankees has been even better this year.
Cam Schlittler will get the ball for New York and the right-hander is the frontrunner to win the Cy Young in the American League this year with a 1.95 ERA over 31 starts.
"Everything's extremely urgent," Lovullo said. "Everything has to be done at a very crisp, accurate pace. He's having a tremendous year, and it doesn't matter if you put lefties or righties up there. You got to engage. You got to be right on your game, take advantage of key situations and be ready to hit a mistake. Hopefully, he makes a few tomorrow."
They will need it because at this point, the Diamondbacks are running out of tomorrows.