TL;DR: The top of the lineup shoved, Brandon Pfaadt soared, and the D-Backs romped to a series win.
I’ll be honest, this was a conflicting series for me. Much like (I assume) all of you, I love the Diamondbacks. Their iconic 2001 World Series win perfectly coincided with my cognizance of baseball and then living in Tucson for grad school simply elevated my casual fandom to another level. I’ve been able to watch the team’s ebbs and flows over the past decade or so and now have the chance to see the franchise reach new heights with a bevy of contract extensions that should extend the window of contention for several more years. But that same 2001 season also marked my parents and I embarking on a move to Maryland where I’d live until finishing my undergraduate degree.
In the interim, there were innumerable trips to Camden Yards, many smaller expeditions to Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, and plenty of debates over favorite players with my friends and parents. We also suffered through the team’s historic teardown and rebuild that finally started to yield results in 2022. This is a long way of saying that I also love the Orioles in a different way, which historically has been fine since the interleague games were relatively sparse and I rarely had to “choose” between the two. In fact, it’s often been an advantage since it’s allowed my family and I to pick and choose who to watch on a given night without worrying about direct confrontation. But the balanced schedule now means that the two teams will meet much more regularly and force me to make that choice. I know I’m not the only one who faces a similar situation, but it’s never fun to feel like you have split loyalties, even if I try to rationalize my choice based on which team “needs it more.” Thankfully, this game held little drama for me to agonize over.
After last night’s sloppy, abysmally adjudicated, and tense affair last night, the D-Backs approached this afternoon’s matchup with workmanlike precision – especially from the top four of the lineup who collected 11 combined hits, seven RBI, and two walks. That quartet got the scoring started immediately as Corbin Carroll and Geraldo Perdomo both singled to put runners on the corners for the heart of the lineup. Pavin Smith followed with a strikeout, but Josh Naylor once again came up clutch with a warning track sacrifice fly to plate Carroll for an early 1-0 D-Backs lead. Carroll would once again star two innings later when he had a no-doubt solo homer towards the pool for his fifth home run of the season – a number he didn’t reach last year until July 13th to pad the lead.
The party didn’t really get started until the fifth when the team put together one of its most dynamic innings so far. Perdomo started with a one-out single before Smith and Naylor demolished a pair of offspeed pitches from Dean Kremer for their respective first home runs of the season to push the lead out to five runs. After a weak groundout from Eugenio Suarez that continues a disappointing stretch, Kremer plunked Alek Thomas with a wayward cutter that ended his night in favor of Cionel Perez. Evidently, that arm slot was all Jake McCarthy needed to see to end his schneid and get his first hit of the season to put himself and Thomas into scoring position for Tim Tawa. The rookie then confidently used an inside-out swing to lace a Perez fastball over the third baseman, Ramon Urias’ glove to collect his second and third RBI of his young career. Incredibly, the offense wasn’t finished either as Perdomo would add a solo blast to cap his night while Smith and Naylor combined again with a double and single respectively for the final two runs in the home half of the eighth.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ledger, Brandon Pfaadt continues to impress as he absolutely stymied an offense that, on paper at least, could be very formidable. Through the first three innings, he had allowed just a pair of singles before running into trouble in the fourth when he gave up consecutive walks to Adley Rutschman and Ryan O’Hearn. He wriggled his way through the self-created jam however with a soft liner from Tyler O’Neill and more poor baserunning from the Orioles. When he spiked a curveball to Cedric Mullins, both Rutschman and O’Hearn attempted to advance, but Jose Herrera pounced and perfectly threw out O’Hearn at second. The righty conceded another pair of singles to Gunnar Henderson and Rutschman, but ended his night with yet another inning-ending double play from O’Hearn. Strangely enough, he relied mostly on his sinker, his least used pitch to this point at 12%, to great effect against a right-handed heavy lineup to keep the Baltimore hitters guessing. Finally, Jalen Beeks and Bryce Jarvis strung together three perfect innings to put the finishing touches on the team’s first shutout of the year.
Despite Pfaadt’s excellent outing, it was the offense that starred in my opinion. It was a balanced attack that wasn’t focused on power, but a blend of speed, situational hitting, and stringing hits together. If this is the kind of offensive execution we can expect through the rest of the season, it will be a force to be reckoned with across the National League. In five out of their eight innings of work, the leadoff batter reached base, which automatically lengthens the inning and puts additional pressure on the pitcher. It also allows the team to utilize the kind of speed and excellent baserunning that has become a staple of this offense over the past three years. These are the kinds of cathartic wins that can boost a team’s morale and give additional confidence to the entire squad. Now they just need to keep doing it.
