Dbacks Avoid The Sweep
Following the ‘sweep’ over the Texas Rangers in a short 2 game series earlier this week, the Diamondbacks would have to welcome the Milwaukee Brewers into town for these 2 teams first meeting since the Diamondbacks knocked out the Brew crew in last year’s Wild Card round. While this Brewers team isn’t the same pitching wise since we last saw them, but with players like Willy Adames and William Contreras having career years, along with the performances by their young studs in Jackson Churio and Tobias Myers, this years Brewers team might end up being more of a threat than a lot of baseball fans initially thought.
Game 1 on Friday night would see the crafty lefty Eduardo Rodriguez take the bump for the Diamondbacks, as the Brewers would rely on ‘Fastball Freddy’ Freddy Peralta to oppose him. The Snakes wasted no time getting the scoring started with a first inning Pavin Smith sac-fly. Unfortunately for Eduardo Rodriguez and the Diamondbacks, the offense went stagnant after the 1st and would be shut down the rest of the way by Peralta and the Brewers bullpen. A Rhys Hoskins 2-R Homerun in the top of the 4th would be all that Rodriguez would surrender in his 5 innings of work, but that would be more than enough for Milwaukee as they held on for a 2-1 win.
This performance from Eduardo, while not perfect but still solid, had me asking the fellas what about Rodriguez’ outing stuck out to them more, and what they liked from him in this outing.
“I guess for me it’s the fact that he can go 4 dominant innings. I think that’s a positive sign…we’ve talked about it, if he was pitching early April, maybe early May, like 29 innings that’s not even a month’s worth of innings that he’s been pitching so far this season. He’s still coming back like we can’t expect him to be amazing because of that…once he reaches the 5th inning that’s where he really struggles and I think that’s kind of a sign from all the Dbacks staff so far, but again most of them are coming back from injuries so you can’t expect them to go 5-6 innings just like nothing…with the way that we can set this team up during the playoffs, I think 4 innings will honestly go a long way, we don’t need him to go 7 innings or something like that. We kind of just need him to keep us afloat…” – Gabe
“His whiffs, in 5 innings 12 whiffs was a very encouraging sign to me. With his stuff it’s all about command and control, if he can get these guys to whiff, to me that shows that his stuff is working…We need him to go longer, we need him to be more efficient, someone like him we can’t have him go [just] 4 innings. Everybody is going 4 and 5 innings, our bullpen is going to be tired here very quickly…as long as ERod keeps taking a step forward I’m good, don’t have a decent start like this then you’re next start don’t even get through 3 so just keep moving forward.” – Brandon
Heading into Game 2’s jersey giveaway on Saturday evening, there would be some unfortunate pregame news as the team placed Ryne Nelson on the IL with some right shoulder inflammation (retroactive to September 11th) with the hope that he can return before the end of the regular season campaign. Brandon Pfaadt was however still healthy and ready to go for his scheduled start, but it did not go as anyone imagined as the Brewers put together a 7 Run, 2-Out rally that chased Pfaadt from the game before he could even record 6 outs. Pfaadt’s struggles and blowup innings have been a common subject as of late and have really made his numbers over the last 7 games look even worse than imagined.
- Last 7 Starts for Brandon Pfaadt:
- 4-3, 35.1 IP, 7.90 ERA and a 1.78 WHIP
- 33 R (31 ER), 52 H, 8 2B, 1 3B, 8 HR, 11 BB, 42 K
- Opp. Slash: .347/.392/.533 > .925 OPS
- 9% SoftCont. / 55% MedCont. / 36% HardCont.
- 24.5% LD% / 37.3 GB% / 38.2 FB%
While it’s not at a career high innings wise for Pfaadt just yet (he had 178.2 IP last year for MiLB, MLB and Postseason combined), he is trending to surpass that amount by the end of the regular season (barring anymore 1.2 IP showings like we saw Saturday evening). This had me asking the fellas if the high inning count is the main reason behind his issues as of late, or is there something else that could be attributing to this stretch of rough outings.
“So the thing with Pfaadt is that he is young, he had 167 innings in the Minor Leagues but he was incredibly dominant in the Minors so he wasn’t throwing a lot of pitches…I think the fact that he’s had to be, and we’ve said this all the time like a joke mostly but, he’s had to be the ace of this staff, he’s had to carry this staff…I think at this point, whether it’s physically or emotionally, he’s drained…he’s kind of doing a veteran move of just taking the blame and not putting excuses on anything else, but do think hes just tired.” – Gabe
“For me I think he’s truly gassed at this point, it’s not due to the fact that he’s at his near [career high in innings], I think there’s the added stress of him knowing like [he’s] been pitching well for the most part all season so he’s trying to do it every start and I just think the last few he’s kind of struggled a little bit, but those recent numbers the last 7 starts, I’m pretty sure that coincides with a certain Catcher not being on the roster…I’m hoping that they can manipulate who starts to see if maybe they can get Pfaadt maybe 1 time where he goes 6 days/7 days in between starts, that way he can just kind of catch up, but with the Ryne Nelson injury I just don’t see that as possible…” – Brandon
The rough top of the second would put the Diamondbacks at a pretty big disadvantage and with Milwaukee’s young hurler Tobias Myers on the mound, the offense would need to answer back, which they eventually did, but it was sadly not enough for them to dig out of the hole that Brandon Pfaadt left them in. While yes it was basically too little too late and “garbage time” runs, but the fight that this offense put up had me asking the fellas if this was at least some kind of silver lining to leave this loss with, or is it still not enough to quell some of the concerns we might have about this team at times.
“…When they’re up 12-2, they are gonna put in their back end bullpen arms like their Paul Sewald’s of the world. It didn’t inspire too much confidence but today’s game where they put up 11, that one did just because of how lethal this bullpen is. Overall I just thought, especially when you combine it with that first game like, their inability to score with runners in scoring position is getting to the point where it’s a little bit dangerous, especially when you face a really good pitching staff…overall I am still a little worried just because some of the at-bats are a little weird looking, not great…” – Gabe
“It put them at ease a little bit but like Gabe said, the inability with runners in scoring position, I think it’s always going to be a problem and we’re just gonna have to get used to it because they are gonna do what they did here, where they put up runs in bunches. We also saw it in Game 3, this team when they are clicking it’s the best offense in baseball, when they are not it is the worst…I don’t think there is any game that they are out of after seeing this…” – Brandon
Sundays Game 3 finale started off like a lot of Diamondbacks games with more first inning runs from the best offense in baseball, with Pavin Smith adding 3 more on a bases clearing double in the bottom of the 3rd to make it 5-0 Snakes. It looked like it would be enough, but the Brewers offense took a page out of the Diamondbacks book and put up 7 unanswered runs on Gallen and Ginkel. After a back and forth affair for the next few innings, the Diamondbacks ultimately came out on top in this one as walk-off winners.
Zac Gallen wasn’t the Cy Young caliber ace that we are still looking for, but he did turn in a solid 5 innings performance that at least gave the team a chance at victory. While yes it was still a decent outing, a 2 walk and 28 pitch first inning is not ideal at all, especially when we need to save as many bullpen bullets as possible these next few weeks. This had me asking the fellas what the reason could be for him to labor so early and seemingly so often, and if we are concerned with this trend from Gallen.
“I think he’s looked better overall, I think the issue is that he thrown too many pitches…that’s the biggest issue for me is just how many 3-2 counts he had. He has to be able to put guys away a lot quicker than that because he struggles to get to the 5th because of that, like he does settle down eventually but if you’re throwing 45 pitches in the first 2 innings, it’s gonna be very hard for you to get through the 4th and through the 5th, it just puts you behind completely…the strikeout rate is very high right now which is good, but it also makes him go a lot higher with his pitch count, he’s sort of looking a little bit like Spencer Strider right now, it’s good to a certain extent but with how gassed this bullpen is and with how gassed the starting rotation is, we need him to start playing with the defense a little bit more…” – Gabe
“I think he’s trying to be Robbie Ray. Dont, do not go hunting for the strikeout…it’s really starting to worry me for sure, his last few starts, 20 pitches in the first. Once you do that you’re really behind the 8 ball when it comes to your pitch count, because now you’re really gonna have to rely on yourself for the next couple of innings to have quick, efficient innings. If you can keep it under 13 or 14 [pitches], you might get to the 6th…I’m getting really worried about these really long first pitch innings, but overall his last few starts have been good. He’s keeping the team in the game…keep that pitch count down, don’t try and go for the strikeout, just go for the out, pitch to contact, it’s okay.” – Brandon
After we gave our quick final thoughts about this series versus the Milwaukee Brewers, along with a quick preview at the upcoming 3 game series against the Colorado Rockies in the homerun factory that is Coors Field, the crew wrapped up the rest of the episode with some more viewer/discord questions from our listeners!
- “What happened to the pitching?” + “Relief pitching seems like more of a problem than starting pitching (Pfaadt the exception). Am I off? Are the guys just tired?”
- “How optimistic can we be about the rest of the season with Gabi back. And what does that mean for our catching depth?”
- “Does today’s win make you feel better about the season”
- “Was today’s game the craziest game of the year?”