Can Orioles get back on their feet against Diamondbacks?

In the thick of the division infighting, circling the demolition derby in a Ford Pinto, are the victory-challenged Arizona Diamondbacks. They follow the Red Sox into Camden Yards - someone must have left the gate open - and represent the final home opponent before the Orioles head to Toronto and New York to close the regular season and determine whether they'll play deeper into October.

No worries about a letdown from the Orioles. They can't relax against anyone, especially after the Red Sox swept them. Especially after losing their grip on the second wild card.

Yovani Gallardo makes only his second start since Sept. 6, and the last one didn't go as planned. Facing the last-place Rays on Sept. 15, he surrendered six runs and seven hits in 3 1/3 innings in a 7-6 loss that added another layer of disappointment to his debut season in Baltimore.

Pairing Gallardo with the Diamondbacks makes sense if you consider that he's 7-2 with a 2.32 ERA in 12 career starts against them. And somebody has to pitch. Never ignore that factor.

The current group is batting .361 against him, in case you were starting to let down or relax.

Paul Goldschmidt is 8-for-13 with a double, Welington Castillo is 6-for-19 with a double and A.J. Pollack is 3-for-7.

As far as I know, none of the Orioles have a beef with Welington.

Only three of them have faced right-hander Shelby Miller, who's been awful in his first season in Arizona after the Braves traded him in December and left the Diamondbacks' front office with egg on its proverbial face.

Executives are scrambling to save their jobs.

Senior vice president of baseball operations De Jon Watson has been relieved of his duties - his name came up during the Orioles' GM search - and chief baseball officer Tony La Russa and general manager Dave Stewart could follow him out the door.

Manager Chip Hale also is hesitant to send out his laundry.

Miller was demoted to Triple-A over the summer and he's 2-12 with a 6.90 ERA and 1.744 WHIP in 18 starts over 90 innings. He's allowed 12 earned runs (15 total) and 26 hits over 14 2/3 innings this month.

Left-handers are batting .346 against Miller and right-handers are hitting .289. Safe to assume that Pedro Alvarez and Hyun Soo Kim will be in the lineup.

Alvarez easily has the most career at-bats against Miller among the Orioles, going 5-for-20 with a double and three home runs. Mark Trumbo is 0-for-6 and Drew Stubbs is 0-for-2.

The Orioles don't have fond memories of their past encounters with the Diamondbacks, losing 12 of the 15 games between the clubs. They're 1-5 at home, including a three-game sweep in 2007 during Arizona's last visit.

The pain from the Aug. 12-14, 2013 sweep at Chase Field still resonates with Orioles fans, their team allowing the tying or winning run in the ninth inning in all three games. Three losses in walk-off fashion that receive the bulk of the blame for the Orioles missing the playoffs.

Closer Jim Johnson blew saves on back-to-back days, running his season total to nine, after Darren O'Day served up Adam Eaton's walk-off home run in the opener. Goldschmidt homered off T.J. McFarland leading off the bottom of the 11th inning and the Diamondbacks completed the sweep the following day with Aaron Hill's RBI single off Bud Norris in the 14th inning.

Norris wasn't thrilled to enter the game in the 14th inning. Outside his comfort zone.

The Orioles were 13 games above .500 entering the series. They're 11 games above .500 entering this one.

It feels so much different now.