Snakebitten

The Arizona Diamondbacks specialize in winning close games and losing blowouts. Near the bottom of the National League in most batting categories and among the best in pitching, they give up many more runs than they score, an oddity for a team contending in baseball’s strongest division. What’s more, their highest-paid player, bird demolition expert Randy Johnson, is on the shelf next to his five Cy Youngs for the rest of the year, with a herniated disk in his vast spine. That the club can reel off an eight-game winning streak with Johnson laid up -- as it did in a late-July run that included four straight over the Florida Marlins -- bespeaks a team with balance and fortitude.

In other words, if you’re a Florida Marlins fan, the Diamondbacks are complete bastards. The sweep of the Fish was a brutal exercise in ass-whipping capped by Eric Byrnes’s walk-off three-run homer in the fourth game. See if the Marlins can reverse their bad desert mojo at 7:05 tonight at Dolphin Stadium. Tickets start at nine dollars. Buy them at the gate, through florida.marlins.mlb.com, or by calling Ticketmaster at 954-523-3309.
Wed., Aug. 15, 7:05 p.m.