Gabriel Moreno continues to torment the Dodgers with a grand slam, and Brandon Pfaadt outduels the Dodgers’ Ace.
As I get back to my hotel room to write this recap, I honestly don’t know where to start! Do I start with how electric Chase Field was tonight? Do I start with how fortunate I feel for the week of great recaps I have enjoyed? Do I start with Brandon Pfaadt rising to the occasion and continuing the hot streak of quality starts from the starting rotation? Or what about Gabriel Moreno? Ketel Marte? I say we start at the beginning!
Chase Field was completely packed tonight with 40,319 being the announced attendance and there was some tension in the air at first pitch. The Dbacks, who had not exactly had the start the team had hoped for, facing up against the 1 Billion dollar Gorrilla the Los Angeles Dodgers who seem to be off to the start they always are with the best record in MLB coming into tonight. As per usual, Dodger fans were all over Chase Field jeering and feeling pretty good about themselves, however I will say, Dbacks fans also showed out well, albeit maybe a bit more cautiously optimistic.
Brandon Pfaadt has been the best starting pitcher thus far in the season for the Dbacks, and his opponent Yoshinobu Yamamoto has arguably been the best starting putcher in baseball. Early on, the 2 pitchers matched each other inning for inning, pitch for pitch although I will say Pfaadt allowed some hard contact right at guys in the early going.
Then came the 4th inning. Pfaadt set the tone in the top of the inning getting around a leadoff walk to put the Dodgers away quietly. Pavin Smith led off the bottom of the 4th for the Dbacks and grinded out a tough 7 pitch walk from Yamamoto, followed by a Josh Naylor single, and a Eugenio Suarez hit by pitch to load the bases with no one out. Gabriel Moreno then came up to bat and after he pulled a ball at 105 mph in the second inning, there may have been some optimism amongst Dbacks fans despite his incredibly slow start to the season. I remembered thinking to myself how it was probably a really good sign he was so on time in the second inning and how this would be such a great time for Gabi to really announce his presence with authority to the 2025 season. Boy did he ever! After watching 2 balls outside of the zone to begin the at bat, Gabi sent the next pitch 377 feet to right center field at 105 mph for a grand slam! It was all of a sudden playoff loud at Chase Field! Coming into the game, Yamamoto had allowed just 4 earned runs all season and he had just allowed 4 earned runs on a single swing! Having a Dbacks player hit a grand slam against the Dodgers at Chase Field is an event on its own for any Dbacks fan. Having it be a player like Gabi Moreno who had been such a contributor when healthy in seasons past but had been off to such a slow start in 2025? That is the ultimate grand slam in my opinion. Gabi would continue on to cap off his excellent night going 3-4 with 4 RBI’s.
I remembered thinking after that hit, the only other guy Id love to see have a big home run other than Gabi tonight would be Ketel Marte. Marte who had been 5th in MVP voting last season and suffered the unfortunate hamstring injury and has appeared so frustrated as of late and struggling to get anything going at the plate. It almost felt like someone was listening to me as not even an inning later Ketel Marte got the monkey off his back for this season hitting a literal laser beam at 109 mph to right center field for his first home run of the season! You could see the weight lift off of Ketel’s shoulders as he finally got to do the basketball shooting motion that he had seen his teammates doing all season as he was rounding 2nd base. I also would be remiss if I didn’t mention that he had a spectacular leaping grab earlier on in the game.
Pfaadt continued to rise to the occasion into the 7th inning and walked off the field to thunderous applause as he went 6.1 innings giving up 4 hits and striking out 6 Dodger batters while giving up no runs. Most importantly, he continued the trend of Dbacks starting pitchers putting up quality starts, something this team has desperately been waiting for, and would pick up his NL leading 6th win of the season!
The only downside to this game was the bullpen of Morillo and Ginkel continuing the other troubling trend of shaky relief pitching as the 2 surrendered 3 runs in the 8th and 9th inning. If I said that I wasn’t at least a little bit nervous there at the end, Id be lying. One thing is for sure, we cant get JMart, Puk, and Graveman back here quick enough.
Outside of the obvious Gabi’s grand slam, what was your favorite part of the game?