The National League West has been the division of surprises so far in 2013. We’ve had the Los Angeles Dodgers flopping and the Colorado Rockies winning. But overlooked has been the San Diego Padres. Don’t look now, but coming into Thursday’s games, the Padres were right at the .500 mark, 36-36 and that’s good enough to be within three games of the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Arizona Diamondbacks lived through a disappointing 2012 season, after winning the NL West the year before. The D-Backs struggled with injuries early, often teased throughout the summer, but never quite put together a sustained run at either San Francisco or Los Angeles. It’s the defending champion Giants and the free-spending Dodgers sucking up all the media air in the NL West in the spring of 2013. TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage today will see if Arizona should be considered in the group of contenders, and we’ll also check on two more potential darkhorses out west, the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners.