Diamondbacks 6, Braves 4: Win and Peace

The D-backs avoided the sweep. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?

Record 15-13. Pace: 87-75. Change on 2024: +3.

The scoreboard declared us victors. The crowd, drunk on momentum and cheap beer, roared like prisoners mistaking the clang of their cell doors for celebration. But those of us who saw beyond – those of us cursed with introspection – we knew. This was no triumph. This was survival dressed in a party hat. The weary Diamondbacks, battered to defeat in four consecutive games, three times in extra innings, roused themselves to take the field once more, They sought to avoid a sweep which would take them back to that most maligned of summits. Mt. .500. It would leave them staring into the abyss of a road-trip to the seventh level of hell, also known as New York and Philadelphia.

We lead early, true, scoring in three of the first four innings. These runners crossed home not with joy, but a kind of mechanical inevitability, each step taking them further from who they used to be. The dugout greeted them with high-fives, which felt like absolution no one believed in. And, inevitably, the Braves crawled back. Errors, not of skill, but of attention, allowed the ghost of failure onto the bases, and the lead never seemed comfortable. In the ninth, we turned to Justin Martinez, a young man of stalwart talent, but haunted by both his past and his future. He walked two batters, hit a third, and put the tying run on base, his velocity a mocking shadow of its former self.

Martinez stood on the mound like a condemned man, about to utter his final confession. He threw the pitch. The batter swung. A lazy fly-ball to center. Routine, they call it.

But nothing was routine. Not in this life.

---

Yeah. It was a win, and much-needed as such, especially with the team about to march into a brutal gauntlet of opponents. But it was one which likely raised as many questions as it answered. The primary one would be Martinez, who did NOT look right in the ninth. His pitches basically topped out at 98 mph, 4-5 below what I’d expect to see. And as last night, his control was almost non-existent. It seemed like a throwback to the 2023 version of the pitcher, who never knew where the pitch was going. With A.J. Puk on the shelf. the bullpen situation is problematic again. Kevin Ginkel really can’t come back soon enough to provide much-needed reinforcements.

Even though Arizona never trailed, it felt almost certain that they would find a way to choke this one away too. Right from the top of the first, when the Braves had men on second and third with nobody out, after Brandon Pfaadt allowed a single and double to the first two men he faced. But Corbin Carroll turned things around, catching a fly ball for the first out, then firing home to nail the runner at home for the second. He then provided the necessary offense in the bottom half of the inning, tripling out of the gate (below), and going from home to third in just 11.02 seconds, the fastest time measured this season. He came home on a Geraldo Perdomo groundout, and Arizona had a 1-0 lead.

Pfaadt put two more Braves on base in the top of the second, before escaping with a zero, and the D-backs took advantage of some offensive sloppiness in their half. After a walk to Eugenio Suarez, Alek Thomas grounded back to the pitcher, who tried for the force at second. However, he threw the ball away, and the Diamondbacks had runners on first and third with no outs. They were not able to do much damage. but Lourdes Gurriel’s sacrifice fly was enough to get Suarez home, and make the score 2-0. That became 3-0 after three consecutive hits to start the fourth, with Thomas’s double driving in a run – although Suarez was out by some way, trying to score from first on the play.

Pfaadt had been pitching through traffic effectively. He only had one inning without a base-runner (the fourth), but he had largely avoided damage. An RBI double to Alex Verdugo (who went 4-for-4 with a walk) was the only run he allowed through six. The D-backs got that run back immediately, Perdomo cranking his fourth home-run of the year to make it 4-1. With a reasonable pitch count through six innings, Torey Lovullo sent Pfaadt out for the seventh, but it all went a bit 19th-century Russian novel. Suarez’s 6th error of the season put the lead-off man aboard, then a pair of singles made it 4-2, the tying run on base with no outs, ending Brandon’s night. Time for the bullpen to… do something.

Shelby Miller took over, and immediately allowed an RBI single: 4-3, tying run on third and still no outs. But back-to-back strikeouts and a fly ball, kept the runner there, and preserved Arizona’s lead. Miller has now made 11 consecutive appearances without giving up an earned run. There has not been a longer streak by a D-back to start the season since Matt Reynolds went 19 appearances in 2013. That allowed Pfaadt to hold on to his quality start – albeit the bare minimum in both innings pitched (six) and earned runs allowed (three). His final line was six innings, scattering nine hits and a walk with six strikeouts, his season ERA increasing a little to 2.78.

As in the fifth, the D-backs responded in kind, answering back with two runs of their own. It could perhaps have been more, considering Carroll tripled again to lead off the frame. This one was even faster, Corbin needing only 10.87 seconds to reach third-base this time. However, he was out at the plate trying to come home on a contact play off the bat of Perdomo. But the D-backs added a walk by Pavin Smith, both men coming home on a Josh Naylor double (above). That provided two much needed insurance runs, with the score 6-3. The much-maligned Ryan Thompson had one of his best appearances for a while, with a 1-2-3 eighth, setting the stage for Martinez in the ninth.

It was a save, but hardly the kind of outing the breeds much-needed confidence in the Diamondbacks’ bullpen. I refer you to Mr. Dosteovsky for the details, but Martinez put the first two on, before a fortuitous double-play took the tying run off the plate. Until an RBI double put it right back on there, and incidentally, ended Martinez’s zero-ER streak of his own at ten games. He needed 26 pitches, and the velocity situation alone is troubling. It was apparent to everybody that Martinez isn’t right, and under other circumstances, could have been looking at another blown save. But it wasn’t, and the team avoids the sweep. A lot of room to improve, however – and looking at the schedule, they’ll need to.

A lively Gameday Thread, with 344 comments. The best of the red ones goes to Dano_in_Tucson, for this enigmatic little gem, which seems appropriate even if entirely shorn of all context.

An off-day tomorrow, before what looks like a potentially season-defining part of the schedule starts, beginning with a series in New York against the Mets. Eduardo Rodriguez gets the opener there on Tuesday, with a first pitch at 4:10 pm, Arizona time.