The 2 franchises came into the game today with the exact same number of franchise wins and the Dbacks prevailed.
The Arizona Diamondbacks began the home series against the Tampa Bay Rays with a 5-1 win Tuesday night. Interestingly enough, the Dbacks and the Rays came into the game tonight with the exact same number of franchise wins and playoff wins as they were both expansion teams in 1998. What are the odds a series would begin with such an even franchise split?! These are the things that seem to only happen in baseball.
Offensively, Pavin Smith continues to prove the haters wrong as he hit an absolute rocket 420 feet for his 4th home run of the year in the 3rd inning. New guy Tim Tawa also contributed his own rocket in the 5th inning as his was more of a line drive variety into the front rows of left field. I know everyone on here is anxiously awaiting Jordan Lawlar’s debut, however we may have to wait a little longer as Tawa has done a nice job of providing some nice thump to the bottom of the Dbacks order. Josh Naylor and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. added some insurance RBI’s in the 8th inning with a single and a sac fly respectively as the Dbacks offense continues to show up in the 8th inning randomly.
Anyhow, the story of the game for me was the Dbacks pitching. Brandon Pfaadt set the tone today going 6 innings of 1 run ball with 5 K’s getting his 4th win of the season already. Pfaadt may not be the ace on paper for this team, but he sure has felt like it so far to start this season as he has been such a consistent stopper in this rotation. Unlike his last outing where he primarily relied on the curveball, tonight Pfaadt leaned heavily on the sweeper. With so many weapons on a given night, he must be a tough guy to gameplan for as an opposing team.
Ryan Thompson, Jalen Beeks, and new guy Juan Morillo continued the tone set by Pfaadt as the bullpen did their job and held the Rays offense scoreless in their relief innings. Most notably with the bullpen was perhaps who wasn’t pitching as Justin Martinez whom Torey said before the game would be available was not warming up in the 8th inning when it was still a 3-1 game and clearly a save opportunity. Post game Torey addressed the Martinez absence saying, “JMart is doing ok. He probably needs one more day. He’s close to 100%. We are expecting him tomorrow.” When pressed further by reporters Torey called it right shoulder fatigue with no imaging necessary. Doesn’t exactly give you the warm fuzzies after the news we got about co-closer AJ Puk today receiving a second and third opinion on his elbow. Stay tuned….