Brandon Pfaadt led the way with 7 superb innings, as the offense again came through as they took the first of four.
The last time Brandon took the mound was against this exact same team in the Milwaukee Brewers, and the results were abysmal. He didn’t get through the second inning after allowing 8 runs, dooming the D-backs and pushing fan sentiment to all-time lows, considering this could be their Wild Card matchup once the playoffs get going.
With revenge on his mind, Brandon was up to the task.
He was perfect through 3 innings, with four dominant strikeouts to match. The perfection was lost the next inning, with Brice Turang singling to left, but struck out two to end the inning and start a magical run.
He struck out the side in the 5th inning, mixing his usual sweeper with a 95mph fastball, and struck out the first two in the 6th before Turang spoiled the fun with a lazy fly out to left to end his strikeout streak at 7 batters.
With a low pitch count, Pfaadt was summoned for the 7th and got the first two batters out with flyouts. But Garrett Mitchell golfed a low sweeper out to right-center for the first and only run of the ballgame, as A.J Puk and Justin Martinez came on in relief to shut the door on the two-hit, one-run outing for a pitching staff in desperate need of quality starts.
The offense matched the ineptitude of Milwaukee through 4 innings, albeit with a couple of hits and a walk to at least threaten things. But things started to turn in the 5th as both Moreno and Perdomo walked to lead things off for the top of the order and Corbin Carroll up to the plate.
A glancing error off the glove of Monasterio to score Moreno from 2nd and give the D-backs a 1-0 lead. Marte came up next, and on a 3-0 count just missed a homer, as it hit off the top of the wall in left field for a long single, 2-0 D-backs.
Christian Walker added another run with a sac fly to right, and that ended the scoring with a 3-0 lead.
The Pavin Smith show continued in the 8th as he came up to the plate with 1 out and Walker on 1st after a single. He’d struggled to that point as he was hitless but turned it all around against a Joe Ross fastball right down the middle for a two-run shot to left, 5-1 D-backs.
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Not the greatest hitting performance but just enough to get the job done as Brandon Pfaadt struck out 12 Brewers in a masterful 7-inning performance. We’ll see these two teams face off again tomorrow as we march towards the playoffs.