We were glad to see colleague Bob McManaman raise the possibility that Diamondbacks ace Ian Kennedy has pitched his way into the NL Cy Young race.

After all, with all the talk about Justin Upton being a viable NL Most Valuable Player candidate, it had occurred to us that Upton might not even be the MVP of his own team!

That’s not a knock on Upton. It’s just that Kennedy has taken the NL by storm this season with a 17-4 record, 3.03 ERA and .232 opponents batting average.

He’s blown through August like a haboob, going 5-1 with a 2.31 ERA amid the heat of a pennant race.

ESPN.com’s “Cy Young Predictor” factors in a pitcher’s record, innings pitched, ERA, strikeouts, etc., and awards a “victory bonus” based on the club’s position in the standings.

It rates Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw first in the NL followed by Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay and then Kennedy.

Cliff Lee of the Phillies, who has been even more on fire than Kennedy in August, is fourth.

Trouble is, Kershaw and Kennedy both benefit in the formula from having an NL-best 17 victories. But voters tend to give little credit for victories these days, although Kershaw deserves extra credit from voters for having that record on such a crappy team.

Anyway, just last year, Felix Hernandez won the AL Cy Young despite a 13-12 record for the Mariners. He ranked only sixth in the “Cy Young Predictor” formula, which tells us the predictor can’t predict.

And Diamondbacks fans will recall that in 2008 Brandon Webb tied for the major-league lead in victories with 22 – four more than Tim Lincecum of the Giants, who with more strikeouts and a superior ERA, won the Cy Young.

Lincecum was rated fourth by “The Predictor” in 2009 but won the Cy Young with a 15-7 mark.

This season, he isn’t even among the top 10 on the “Predictor’s” list of NL Cy Young contenders, with a 12-11 record.

But with a 2.58 ERA, 193 strikeouts and a 1.16 WHIP (walks and hits per inning), Lincecum will get votes.

A couple of factors might help Kennedy, though.

First, it appears he will get five more starts, and all but one will be against NL West teams – three of which are among the four worst run-producing clubs in the NL. The other should be against the Pirates.

Meanwhile, the Phillies have six games remaining against the NL East second-place Braves and four each against Milwaukee and St. Louis, who are first and second in the NL Central.

And, depending on how those two Phillies perform, they also could split some Cy Young votes.

That said, Kershaw has the same advantages as Kennedy, except his next start likely will be against the Braves. After that, the schedules are similar.

Can Kennedy win it? Maybe not. But he sure belongs in the conversation.

And only a haboob would have told you in April that when the monsoon waned in August the Diamondbacks would lead the division and we would be talking about their MVP and Cy Young candidates.

Dysfunctional stars

ABC announced its lineup of contestants for the next edition of “Dancing With the Stars,” and we have to wonder if they confused “dance steps” with “12 steps.”

Chynna Phillips? David Arquette? Ricki Lake? Chaz Bono?

Did they use a casting couch or a therapist’s to find this group?

Athletes have dominated “DWTS,” and soccer goalie Hope Solo is in the field along with the poster child of dysfunction, Ron Artest.

Or rather, The Artest Formerly Known as Ron, being that the Lakers forward is changing his name to “Metta World Peace.”

No, seriously.

Reach The Heat Index at bob.young@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8271.

Tonight’s pitching matchup: LHP Wade Miley (1-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. Rockies RHP Aaron Cook (3-7, 5.47).

Miley earned his first major-league win in his second outing in an 8-1 victory over the Nationals. He pitched scoreless innings, allowing five hits and four walks and striking out four. Miley was brought up from Triple-A Reno on Aug. 16 after going 4-1 with a 3.64 ERA there. … Cook had a no-decision in his most-recent outing, getting pounded for 11 hits and five earned runs in five innings against the Astros. This will be Cook’s 22nd career start against the Diamondbacks.

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At this point in the season, it has been said a countless amount of times — the Arizona Diamondbacks are surprising everyone in baseball. With a five-game lead in the NL West with a month left before the playoffs, it has been quite a ride, especially since the team was not expect to contend this year at all. Some projections had them battling to stay out of the division cellar. 

There is one player that essentially epitomizes the season that the Diamondbacks are having. That player is third baseman Ryan Roberts, who is having quite the year despite how it started back in spring training.

Roberts is on the verge of joining the 20-20 club. After his leadoff HR on Monday, he now has 17 homers and 16 stolen bases. He is batting .259 with a very respectable OPS of .793. He has played a career-high 121 games thus far. All of this comes from a guy who was not supposed to make the big league squad. 

Roberts was caught in a numbers game in the infield. The team had signed veterans Melvin Mora and Geoff Blum to play third base after Mark Reynolds was traded. Roberts was impossible to get out in spring training, but the numbers were against him. He made the major league roster only because Blum got injured. 

Roberts continued hitting when he got opportunities and Mora was ineffective and was eventually released. Blum returned only to get hurt again. As a result, Roberts has kept playing. When the trade deadline came around, many believed that the team would make a move to acquire a third baseman. It never happened. 

At this point, much like the D-Backs have somehow found ways to win and succeed, Roberts has somehow managed to establish himself as the team’s third baseman. 

Is this what he pictured his year to be? “I can’t say no or yes,” he explains. “It started with making the team and then once I made the team it started with just trying to break into the lineup everyday.”

He talks the way his manager Kirk Gibson handles things. Roberts isn’t saying that he doubted his talents at all, but he is recognizing the need to, as they say in baseball, keep grinding as the year goes on. He acknowledges that he has “been fortunate to play a lot” and “blessed to get ABs.”

Does he look at a milestone like reaching 20-20? “I look at it,” he said. “You can’t help but look at it.”

As baseball milestones go, hopefully he can reach it and put that feather in his cap. It would be fitting in a year where a team like the Diamondbacks can, at least the way it is looking for now, make it to the postseason. 

LOS ANGELES, CA – JULY 30: Ryan Roberts #14 of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the ninth inning at Dodger Stadium on July 30, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. The Diamondbacks defeated the Dodgers 6-4. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

The Arizona Diamondbacks are in a streak of streaking. Unlike one national analyst recently commented, streakiness has not been the profile of the 2011 D-backs. Only three times have they lost more than four-straight games and the recent six-game skid was the longest of the season. Seven times the team has won four-straight and the longest winning streak this season has been seven games. Not exactly a streaky team despite this recent streak of streaks.

The current six-game winning streak will be put on the line with the schedule bringing the Colorado Rockies in to continue a streak that includes seven-straight series against NL West opponents.

The Rockies (63-70) are a team that was slotted to compete for the division and at least finish second. Instead, they’ve struggled with some injuries (who hasn’t) and in general seem like a team that is lacking in grit and chemistry. 

Here’s the pitching match-ups for the series and don’t forget the great ticket deals available:

As customary here in Phoenix, all three weekday games will start at 6:40 p.m. and be broadcast by the fine folks at Fox Sports AZ.

For a great preview on this series, check out AZ Snake Pit who explains just how crazy the NL West has been over the past half-decade:

Series Preview #44: Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Colorado Rockies – AZ Snake Pit
Every once in a while, it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate just how bizarre of a division the N.L. West actually is.  Not only have all five teams made the playoffs since 2006–something no other division in baseball can say–but it also seems like every year there is a team or two from the N.L. West that comes out of nowhere while a preseason favorite struggles.  To wit, here are the division races from the past five years…

PHOENIX (AP) — Kicking off an important homestand, the NL West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks wanted to be aggressive early, hopefully put some pressure on San Diego to keep their momentum going.

Arizona did just that — got some plenty of help from the Padres, too.

Josh Collmenter pitched effectively into the sixth inning and the Diamondbacks took advantage of San Diego’s shaky defense to beat the Padres 5-0 on Friday night.

“We came out very aggressive, we stole four bags on them, and kind of forced some action,” Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said. “We’ll take it like that when it’s available. We’ll take runs any way we can get them.”

Arizona put pressure on San Diego early with aggressive baserunning and the Padres had no answer, fumbling and bumbling their way to three errors in the first two innings.

Collmenter (8-8) had his fourth straight solid outing, allowing six singles in 5 1-3 innings, and combined with four relievers for Arizona’s second shutout during a four-game winning streak that has the Diamondbacks three games ahead of San Francisco in the division.

“Anytime you can get a few runs before you go out for the second is huge,” Collmenter said. “A lot of times, one run can make the difference, help your confidence.”

The Diamondbacks, with San Diego’s help, gave Collmenter a nice cushion, scoring all of their runs off San Diego starter Wade LeBlanc (2-3) in the first two innings. The Padres never fully recovered, holding Arizona without a run the rest of the way, but going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

“I don’t know if I ever have seen and inning go like that first inning,” LeBlanc said. “Obviously, it put us in a big hole. There wasn’t a whole lot hit hard in that first inning, but they put them where they needed to put them.”

Arizona had surged to the top of the NL West, only to slide back with a six-game losing streak.

In danger of spiraling downward, the Diamondbacks recovered to make it a respectable road trip, closing it out with three straight wins over Washington for their first division lead this late in the season for the first time since 2008.

Heading home for a crucial six-game homestand against NL West opponents, the Diamondbacks hoped to keep it going behind Collmenter.

The over-the-the-top-throwing rookie did his part, retiring the first eight batters he faced while allowing less than two runs for the fourth straight start.

The Diamondbacks — with plenty of help from San Diego — made sure Collmenter didn’t have to work too hard, scoring four runs in the first.

Arizona had five hits in the opening inning and Padres catcher Nick Hundley sent two runs across the plate with throwing errors — the first coming when he hit Ryan Roberts’ swinging bat while trying to throw out Willie Bloomquist as he attempted to steal third.

Right fielder Will Venable also had a not-so-graceful belly flop attempting to catch Paul Goldschmidt’s pop-up down the line and left fielder Kyle Blanks went down awkwardly on Aaron Hill’s double, adding to the ugliness.

It continued in the second inning, when first baseman Jesus Guzman dropped a throw by Logan Forsythe to allow another run, making it 5-0.

Those early problems helped wear out LeBlanc, who threw 91 pitches in four innings while allowing five runs — four, somehow, were earned — on seven hits. In his fifth stint with the Padres this season, LeBlanc hadn’t allowed more than three runs in seven previous starts.

“The difference today was they bunched their hits in the first inning and got their runs,” Padres manager Bud Black said.

After those first two shaky innings, the game was filled with some spectacular defensive plays, including two by Forsythe in the fourth, one by Roberts at third for the Diamondbacks in the fifth and an against-the-wall grab in center by San Diego’s Cameron Maybin in the seventh. Arizona right fielder Justin Upton also made a nice sliding catch in the eighth.

NOTES: Bloomquist led off the game with a double to break an 0-for-12 streak. … Andy Parrino, called up by the Padres before the game, flew out to center as a pinch hitter in his first career at-bat in the seventh inning. … San Diego right-hander Aaron Harang (12-3), Saturday’s starter, is 6-0 in nine road starts this season despite a 4.65 ERA away from Petco Park. … Arizona left-hander Joe Saunders (8-11), who will pitch against Harang, has lost his last three decisions and has a 7.00 ERA over his last three starts. … Arizona has won nine of 12 at home against San Diego.