TL;DR: Brandon Pfaadt wriggled through, the top of the lineup continued to rake, and Tim Tawa got his first major league homer to win another series.
Coming into this season, one of the projected strengths of the D-Backs was both the topline starters as well as the team’s depth in the bullpen and rotation. They were both on display this afternoon in Miami as Brandon Pfaadt continued a strong start to his second full season in the majors and nearly extended a streak of five consecutive “quality starts” by Arizona starters to six. Ironically of course, Pfaadt was the one who began the streak with a sparkling six innings of shutout baseball against the Orioles last Wednesday so it’s only fitting for him to also end that same streak. Even still, while it wasn’t the prettiest or most stylish start for the righty, he pitched well enough to earn the win and put his team in an excellent place to get the win. And it’s a welcome sign that the rotation is starting to round into form as we enter the third week of the season – even if the very idea of a “quality start” may need reexamining. But that reexamination may need its own article!
For a team whose offense was projected to take a step back after the loss of Joc Pederson and Christian Walker, you certainly could be fooled through the first three weeks of the season. Last season, the D-Backs scored the most runs in the both the National League and the majors (by a significant margin) by slugging their way to that mark. But even with the acquisition of Josh Naylor and an improved batting stance from Corbin Carroll, it was widely expected that the offense would regress slightly, if for no other reason than a normal regression to the mean. Instead, once again, it was the Arizona offense that lead the way with a slugging attack against first-rounder Max Meyer in just his 17th big league start. And once again, it was Naylor who acted as a spark plug for the offense, taking the second pitch he saw in the game to straightaway center for the first of three solo homers for the Snakes and four on the night. It was an impressive display of power for a team that currently sits up in the upper third for home run totals and at the very top for slugging percentage in the National League in the opening weeks of the season.
Unsurprisingly, Corbin Carroll was also an integral part of the scoring as he continued his torrid beginning of the season with an RBI single in the top half of the fifth that plated Gabriel Moreno. Sadly, Alek Thomas mistakenly thought the cutoff throw from the outfield would go into second rather than third and was cut down to curtail any additional scoring in the inning. But have no fear dear reader, the power would not stop for long as Pavin Smith and Tim Tawa would follow suit with solo homers, including the latter’s first major league home run in the sixth and seventh innings respectively. And finally, Lourdes Gurriel Jr would round off the excellent offensive night for Arizona with an absolute blast to the left field bleachers to give us our final score.
Outside of the very fun offensive highlights, it’s worth taking another moment of appreciation for Pfaadt as he continues to mature in front of our very eyes. On a night when he seemingly did not have his best command, walking two and surrendering five hits across 5.2 IP, he still managed to find another gear when he needed it. He had just one clean inning on the outing, but held the Marlins to a single run on Matt Mervis’ solo homer on his birthday that came on a curveball which was closer to the ground than the strike zone. While there are some warning signs flashing for Pfaadt in the early going, including a terrifyingly large disagreement between his expected ERA of 5.87 and his actual ERA of 3.04, we can only hope that it’s a function of a small sample size rather than something mechanical or otherwise.
After Pfaadt exited in the sixth, the quartet of Jalen Beeks, Shelby Miller (whose resurgence has been both heartwarming and needed), AJ Puk, and Justin Martinez mostly quieted the Marlins offense and Miami crowd over the final frames. The only nervy moment came in the eighth when Puk allowed consecutive hits to Eric Wagaman and Otto Lopez that brought the Marlins within another run. Thankfully, Puk quickly snuffed out the rally by bouncing back with a strikeout and fly ball to the warning track to limit the damage.
This is the kind of complete team win that has become so refreshing in the early days of this season. It didn’t depend on a single player stepping up or even one part of the team (bullpen, starter, offense) outshining another. Instead, it highlighted excellent performances from the stars like Naylor or Martinez alongside the less-heralded like Smith. If this is the kind of team performance we can expect moving forward, this season truly could be special. Of course, that requires the ability to execute like they did tonight across the entire marathon that constitutes the contemporary baseball season. Now the team will get their chance for a second three-game sweep in as many years against a beleaguered Marlins team that is still deep in the throes of their most recent rebuild. I certainly won’t be betting against them.
