It was going so well. Until it wasn’t.
Record: 11-13. Pace: 74-88. Change on 2023: -2.
“Uh oh. It looks like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays.”
— Office Space
Four weeks into the season, and I still haven’t had a chance to recap a Diamondbacks victory on a Monday. Through five innings, it looked like tonight might be the one to break the streak. Brandon Pfaadt was twirling a gem to match Slade Cecconi’s yesterday, and the D-backs had a 3-0 lead. But to borrow an exchange from another of my favorite movies:
You didn’t think it was gonna be that easy, did you?
You know, for a second there – yeah, I kinda did.
— Kill Bill, Volume One
For first Brandon Pfaadt and then the Arizona bullpen fell apart, allowing the Cardinals to score five unanswered runs and get their first walk-off victory of the year. They certainly got some help from the D-backs hitters, who did their usual late-inning vanishing act. Tonight in St. Louis, that meant sending two more than the minimum to the plate after the fifth inning, and not getting anyone past first-base. After scratching out an energizing victory from the series finale in San Francisco, the D-backs sank back to two games below .500. Arizona were therefore unable to match their season-high winning streak of… [/checks notes] two games.
Let’s start with the good, however, and as noted above, that would be Brandon Pfaadt’s performance through five innings. He had faced these same Cardinals at Chase Field ten days ago, and it didn’t go well, being tagged for six runs as the St. Louis hitters feasted on Pfaadt’s signature sweeper. A change in game-plan was necessary, and Pfaadt executed it to perfection. In that earlier start, he threw very similar numbers of fastballs and sweepers (33% to 29%); tonight, he leaned much more on the fastball (44% to 19%). The Cardinals were not expecting that, and as a result the percentage of whiffs almost doubled, going from 17% on April 12th, to 30% tonight.
This was a sterling lesson on the importance of pitchers being able to make adjustments to opposing hitters, and for five innings it worked brilliantly. He was throwing first pitch strikes to just about everyone. Pfaadt retired the first 12 batters faced, and had strike one on all but one of those hitters. The perfect ended when Nolan Arenado singled cleanly to left, leading off the bottom of the fifth. But Brandon was largely unfazed, retiring the next three batters faced to keep the shutout intact. Through five innings, he had thrown a mere 57 pitches, which is almost Slade Cecconi levels of efficiency, and was absolutely cruising. The three-run lead looked more than enough.
That had come courtesy of two runs from the offense in the second and one more in the fifth. In the second, Joc Pederson doubled and then scored on an RBI single by Eugenio Suarez. Arizona then loaded the bases with no outs, but a Ketel Marte sacrfice fly was the only tack-on run they could add. Kevin Newman (above left) and Gabriel Moreno (above right) both struck out with the bases loaded on four pitches, both swinging at offerings which were well outside the strike-zone. In the top of the fifth, a ground-rule double by Suarez drove in a third run, and put men on second and third with one out. But Moreno struck out again, Jake McCarthy flew out, and that was Arizona’s last legit chance to score.
Still, 3-0 up in the middle of the sixth? What could possibly go wr…. Well, Pfaadt suddenly unable to find the strike-zone with a service animal for one. After retiring 15 of 16 batters, he walked the #8 and #9 in the Cardinals line-up, then issued a third consecutive walk to load the bases. He had issues just three walks on the season before taking the mound in the sixth, having faced a total of 117 batters, so this was both unexpected and sub-optimal. He did get the first out with a shallow fly-ball to Corbin Carroll in center, but then Lars Nootbaar squirted a ground-ball through the left of the infield. Two runs scored, and Pfaadt was done. 5.1 innings, two runs on two hits and three walks with four strikeouts.
I guess I would have taken that as a line before the game started, but considering where we were after five innings, that’s a disappointing end result.Scott McGough came in, and dialed up a double-play ball to keep Arizona in the lead after six. However, old “friend” Paul Goldschmidt got off his long slide without an extra-base hit, by tattooing a center-cut fastball from McGough for a tying home-run, leading off the seventh. Goldy may be a shadow of what he was, but this pitch was crying out for Jack’s “tee” graphic. Another double-play helped avoid further damage, though McGough had to be replaced by Joe Mantiply for the last out in the seventh, and Ryan Thompson worked a scoreless eighth.
As noted, the Arizona offense were already on their way back to the hotel, so Thompson came out again in the night. A jam-shot squibber allowed Goldschmidt to leg out an infield hit, and he turned the ball over to Kyle Nelson. MLB.tv was literally still coming back from its commercial break, so I didn’t actually get to see what happened. But Nelson had wasted no time, allowing a first pitch home-run, and picking up the eighth loss of this young season for the Diamondbacks’ bullpen. Suarez had three hits, and Pederson reached three times on two hits and a walk. Marte and McCarthy each had a hit and a walk.
Click here for details, at Fangraphs.com
Kill Bill, Volume One: Eugenio Suarez, +17.0%
Inglourious Basterds: Kyle Nelson, -28.9%
Django Unchained: Newman, -19.1%; Gurriel, -15.8%
Nelson’s wasn’t quite the worst one-pitch outing by WP in franchise history. On September 2nd, 2001, Byung-Hyun Kim threw one pitch and took the loss against the Padres in San Diego, earning -36.7%. So, World Series champions confirmed. Or something. Like the game, the GDT went a bit south in the later stages, but I did laugh at kilborn’s comment of the night.
Same two teams tomorrow, with a 4:45 pm first pitch, Arizona time. Tommy Henry will be getting the start: that probably means Merrill Kelly is heading to the IL, but Torey Lovullo said after the game a reliever is also hurt. The hits just keep on coming, folks…