Plenty of run support gets Ryne Nelson a drama-free win.
I recall saying to Ramona as All Star Week was drawing to a close that facing the Cardinals and the Astros coming out of the break would in some ways be a good thing, because playing series against two winning teams would likely settle any lingering questions regarding whether we were going to be sellers at the Trade Deadline. To be honest, I think I’ve been finding the waiting to be kind of exhausting, and I frankly expected that we’d be staring disappointment in the face, and part of me just wanted to get on with it.
But baseball friends, our Diamondbacks seem like they have other plans. I think they really want to keep the band together. They’re certainly playing like it so far, with the starting pitching doing its share and the offense piling it on to minimize the opportunities for the bullpen to blow up and steal defeat from the jaws of victory as they have done so often in 2025. And while it’s currently a very small sample size, the team certainly seems to be making it work.
Ryne Nelson took the mound today going up against Sonny Gray, the Cardinals’ ace, in what DBE noted in the series preview would likely be the toughest matchup we were going to face.
Our Sneks were like, “Nah. Hold our beers.”
After Ryno set the Red Birds down in order with a ten-pitch top of the first, the offense got to work. Corbin Carroll led off the game with a triple into the right center field gap, and Gerardo Perdomo promptly drove him home with a single to center. Lourdes Gurriel, Jr., who was one of the few disappointments today on offense, promptly grounded into a double play. Josh Naylor then came to the plate and looked like he was going to strike out on three pitches, but his third swing collided with the St. Louis catcher’s glove and induced a catcher’s interference call. The guys on the Fox broadcast started theorizing that Naylor had somehow deliberately staged a late and awkward swing so that it would hit the catcher’s mitt, which was idiotic but which they spent an awful lot of time camped out on. Thankfully, however, that was interrupted for at least a little while by Eugenio Suarez obliterating the second pitch he saw for a majestic two-run homer into the left field seats:
James McCann, who had himself about as dismal a game at the plate as Lourdes did, struck out to wrap up the frame, but we’d already staked Nelson all the runs he and the team were going to need. 3-0 D-BACKS
And that was basically that. Nelson kept putting up zeroes on the scoreboard, and the offense kept tacking on. Alek Thomas doubled to the gap in left for a lead off the second, Blaze Alexander singled to center to drive him in. Alexander then tagged up and took second on a Corbin Carroll fly out to deep center, and was driven home by Perdomo’s second RBI single of the game. Another Geno dinger followed to start the bottom of the third, as he launched an opposite field fly ball that easily cleared the wall in right center:
Then we added three more in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to a Blaze Alexander single, CC’s second triple (!) of the game, Perdomo’s third (!) RBI single of the game, and finally a two-out Adrian Castillo double down into the right field corner. 9-0 D-BACKS
That’s a lot of offense. The boys came to play today.
Ryne Nelson, meanwhile, didn’t seem to be at his sharpest, kind of like Brandon Pfaadt in yesterday’s contest, perhaps, but he kept putting up zeroes while working around four hits and a walk. He did lose the shutout bid by giving up a one-out Alec Burleson home run to deep right field, but that was the only damage the Cardinals managed to do against him as he completed the sixth and finished his outing with a pitching line of 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 HR, 4 K and 1 BB with 85 pitches thrown. Not too shabby at all. 9-1 D-BACKS
I know there’s been a lot of speculation as to why our rotation coming back from the break is in the order that it’s in, with Pfaadt and Nelson starting it. I’ll be honest, I initially thought it had something to do with the possibility that Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen are going to be shipped off to other teams in the not-too-distant future. The fact that Kelly is pitching tomorrow undercuts that, though, and given how these first two post-ASG games have gone, it’s occurring to me that Torey Lovullo maybe took a hard look at his rotation as it is and decided to frontload it with the guys in whom he has the most confidence right now to pitch a quality start and go deep into a ballgame. If so, it definitely seems to be paying off so far.
Anyway. There were still a few more innings left in the ballgame, and once our bullpen is involved, well, anything can happen. Happily, however, nothing did, aside from the Diamondbacks tacking on one more run in the bottom of the eighth thanks to Alexander reaching on an error, Carroll getting him to third with a double into the right field corner that could have been his third triple of the day but for there being a runner ahead of him, and Perdomo driving in Alexander with a grounder to short. Jake Woodford pitched 2 2⁄3 scoreless innings before being pulled, strangely, for Kyle Bachaus, who gave up a single and a walk before finally getting the last out. 10-1 D-BACKS
I dunno, folks. Maybe it’s just me refusing to let go of my last shreds of hope, but I kind of feel the Diamondbacks are finally fired up and playing with an urgency and a determination that I don’t know that I’ve seen at all this year. But unlike 2023, when a World Series trip wasn’t even a twinkle in anyone’s eye yet, and last year, when we were still treading water but without much to be concerned about one way or another regarding the trade deadline, our boys are really up against it this time, and I think they know it. They’ve got twelve days to turn it around, or this team goes away as they know it as soon-to-be free agents scatter to the four winds. From what I have seen in these last two games, it seems like they really, really, really don’t want that to happen. And if so, godspeed to them, because I really don’t want to see that happen either.
Win Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs
That’s gotta be one of the calmest WPA charts I’ve posted in a recap this season, and I kinda like it. Again, blowouts do funny things to the FanGraphs algorithm, so there are no extreme standouts for this one. I mean, it’s kinda funny that Perdomo had 4 RsBI and only rated a +8% WPA. Such is the goofiness of Win Probability added. So basically, this is it:
Batsman: Geno Suarez (3 AB, 2 H, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 HR, 1 BB, +18/7% WPA)
Ryno: Ryne Nelson (pitching line above, +13.9% WPA)
Nicely attended Saturday afternoon Gameday Thread, despite the possible turnoff of the national broadcast instead of our local guys. There are 282 comments at time of writing, with a number going Sedona Red. By popular acclaim, I am pleased to award the Comment of the Game to kilnborn for this rather striking statistical observation:
Our boys have come to play.
Anyhow, grab your brooms and join us tomorrow as we try to sweep these nasty red birds out of our stadium! Merrill Kelly has the start for us, facing off against Miles Mikolas for St. Louis. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10pm AZ time. Hope to see you!
As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!