Record: 60-53. Pace: 86-76. Change on 2025: +6.
The resurrection of Brandon Pfaadt continues. The team won his seventh consecutive start since he came back from Reno. The pitcher should have a 7-0 record, if not for the Thompson/Sewald meltdown in Pittsburgh. He’ll have to settle for being 6-0 with a 1.55 ERA (40.2 IP and 7 ER), after going 6.2 innings tonight, allowing only an unearned run. To be fair, he did get some help from his defense, with a number of quite excellent plays. But that ERA is the best by a Diamondbacks starter across any seven-game span, since Zac Gallen’s figure of 1.16 (46.2 IP and 6 ER) in April-May 2023. I may just have made myself a little bit sad with that memory.
Tonight was definitely a contrast in opposites, with Pfaadt being remarkably efficient, in contrast to the Padres’ Michael King. It took Brandon only 31 pitches to record nine outs. 31 pitches into his outing, King was still working with two outs in the first. Arizona didn’t manage to score, but it was still a promising start against a man who had given them trouble in the past. Over five previous starts against the D-backs, covering 25.2 innings, King had a 1.05 ERA. But tonight spawned chances from the off. A pair of two-out walks were stranded in the first. Tim Tawa stood on third with one out in the next frame, then fell victim to the dreaded contact play. A Max Kepler double-play ended the third.
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I do want to talk about a pair of quite terrible Diamondbacks challenges tonight (above). One came with one out in the top of the first inning by James McCann, on a pitch which was nowhere near the zone – 1.7″ from the edge, according to the graphic. That left the D-backs down to just one challenge, two batters into the game. As a result, they – specifically, Ketel Marte – had to suffer some egregiously terrible calls by home-plate umpire Ramon De Jesus. Though the three most obviously blown ones didn’t impact the outcomes of the at-bat: Marte walked twice, and Nolan Arenado singled. However, Marte then decided to waste Arizona’s second challenge on an equally blatant strike.
Had this all led to a loss, I’d probably be more than the “slightly irritated” all of the above made me reach. In the fourth inning, the D-backs finally broke through against King. One of those Ketel walks led things off, and one out later, Adrian Del Castillo singled. Then, Tim Tawa blasted his fifth home-run of the year down the left-field line and into the home bullpen (below). It was one of Tawa’s three hits on the day, and his OPS is now higher than that of Max Kepler. Also on form tonight was James McCann, a late replacement in the line-up after Gabriel Moreno had to go off and give birth (or something – I was in the kitchen…). He had an RBI double plus a single, and is now batting .319 for the year.
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Pfaadt continued to cruise through six innings, with a two-out double in the fifth the only time a Padres got past first base. But he was beginning to look a little rosy-cheeked, and Pfaadt connoisseurs will be aware, that often indicates he’s running out of gas. So it proved in the seventh. He allowed his first walk with one down, and a single followed one out later. A ball hit into the shortstop hole proved too difficult for Nolan Arenado, his throw sailing wide of Tawa, and putting the Padres on the board. Torey Lovullo had seen enough, and Pfaadt was lifted. His final line: 6.2 innings, with just five hits and a walk, and three strikeouts.
Juan Morillo took over, and disposed of Xander Bogaerts on three pitches, the last a 100 mph fastball. Morillo then worked around a leadoff single in the eighth. Arizona added a pair of insurance runs to make the score 5-1, one on McCann’s double mentioned above, and the other on a well-worked sacrifice fly off the bat of Jorge Barrosa. He was clearly hyped at getting the job done, and why not? But it wasn’t all good news. Corbin Carroll went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts in the leadoff spot, and some really bad choices. Over his last 30 games, a spell now covering 137 PA, he is hitting just .148. It’s the worst 30-game streak of his career.
Still, a four-run lead proved far more than adequate. New chairman of the closer committee, Brandyn Garcia, set down the Padres in order in the ninth, on 12 pitches – non-save situations apparently not proving an issue there. The win was an important one, over a wild-card rival and on a night where all the other active contenders won. It kept Arizona in a tie for the second wild-card spot with the Phillies, two games up on the Padres, who are now tied with the Marlins. The Diamondbacks are also “only” nine games back of the Dodgers in the NL West. Their lead in the division hadn’t been that small since June 27.
I also want to call out the Arizona defense. Ryan Waldschmidt had a lovely running catch in deep right center, and Max Kepler might have robbed a home-run at the wall in left. There was also an excellent double-play turned, and despite his error, Arenado also made a play worthy of a man with ten Gold Gloves. All told, a solid game for Arizona on all sides of the ball, and a welcome win after the understandable disappointment of the team’s limited moves at the trade deadline.
Click here for details, at Fangraphs.com
Trade winds: Tim Tawa, +32%
Trading partners: Pfaadt, +23%; Morillo, +15%
Trade deadline: Corbin Carroll, -7%
Comment of the thread to ercil, for an observation regarding Barrosa’s sacrifice fly:
Tomorrow night, it’ll be the same two teams in this best of four series, with the D-backs now having a very good chance of at least securing a split. Eduardo Rodriguez starts for Arizona, with another 6:40 pm first pitch.
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