Diamondbacks Outslug Reds 10-8 in Pfaadt's First Win

The offense built a big lead and the bullpen barely hung on

Brandon Pfaadt earned his first big league win tonight in the Diamondbacks 10-8 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. The win improved Arizona's record to 68-61 and into the second NL Wild Card position in the standings, 2.5 games back of the Phillies. The first Wild Card gets to host all three games of the best of three series against the second wild card.

Pfaadt shook off a shaky second inning in which he threw 32 pitches but held the damage to just one run. That came on a solo homer Nick Martini who hadn't homered in an MLB game since 2019. Pfaadt labored through the rest of the inning giving up a double and a walk before finally getting out of it with a strikeout.  That was the first of 11 consecutive outs that Pfaadt recorded until giving up a single with one out in the top of the 6th. 

At that point in the game the D-backs held a 5-1 lead, thanks to a five run outburst in the bottom of the fourth against Reds starter Hunter Green.  Pfaadt was only at 86 pitches but manager Torey Lovullo decided to go to his bullpen and bring in Bryce Jarvis. Lovullo defended his decision, stating he felt that Pfaadt was tiring. "It was the 32 pitch second, it was the dip in fastball velocity......I thought the stuff was getting loose"

The move backfired as the Reds closed the gap quickly once Pfaadt was removed from the game. Elly De La Cruz  laid down a perfect bunt against a shifted infield and reached base safely to give the Reds first and second with one out. Jarvis induced a fly out but then gave up Martini's second homer of the game, a three run blast and the lead was cut to 5-4. 

Pfaadt's final line was 5.1 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5K.  He was relieved to finally pick up his first win as his record went to 1-6. "It's been in the back of my head, like when's this first one going to come. To finally get it done and have the offense pick me up and make it easier was awesome".

Fortunately for Pfaadt  the offense was primed to have a big night.  Lourdes Gurriel Jr, doubled with one out and scored on an Alek Thomas single. After a walk to Gabriel Moreno, Jace Peterson laced a two run triple into the right field corner. Two base on balls later Tommy Pham extended his hit streak to 15 games with a two-RBI single. 

They tacked on a run in the 6th, two more in 7th and two more in the 8th. One scary moment occurred in the 6th inning when Christian Walker was hit in the helmet on a pitch from Brett Kennedy.  He stayed in the game and said in the clubhouse afterwards that he felt fine. Luckily on replay it seemed to be a glancing blow.  The 7th inning was very nearly another five run inning when Pham hit what appeared to be a three run homer initially. On replay review the play was ruled an out due to a fan interference when a young fan reached over the wall and snatched the ball out of left fielder Spencer Steer's glove. 

Tommy Pham just missed a 3-run homer, ruled out on fan interference pic.twitter.com/dpvHwe1Vs9

— Michael McDermott (@MichaelMcD8393) August 26, 2023

Moreno and Peterson hit back to back  triples in the 8th inning, the 8th time that's been done in franchise history. The three triples also tied for the most triples by the D-backs in a game, which had been done on 10 previous occasions.  In all the D-backs had  10 hits, drew nine walks, two hit by pitch and were 5-for-13 with runners in scoring position as they built a 10-4 lead.  Every batter in the lineup reached base at least two times except for Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and he still doubled and scored a run.  It turned out they would need almost all of those 10 runs to secure victory. 

Lovullo turned to young fireballing reliever Justin Martinez to pitch the 9th but it was clear from the outset he just didn't have his control.  Falling behind in counts with non competitive pitches he gave up a single, a walk and a hit by pitch to load the bases with nobody out.  Lovullo decided to stick with him however and when he induced a strike out it looked like he might settle down. Instead after getting ahead 0-2 to Will Benson. Martinez then ran the count full with three pitches well out of the zone. When he finally came back into the zone it was a center cut four seam at 101 MPH that Benson smashed to the home run porch in centerfield for a grand slam. It's possible that will be the last we see of Martinez for a while. He's now given up 11 earned runs in eight innings. Both homers allowed have been grand slams to the Reds. 

With the score now 10-8 Lovullo was forced to bring in Kevin Ginkel to get the save. Ginkel struck out the final two batters to secure the victory and record his fourth save of the season.  Asked if he was concerned about the heavy bullpen usage lately,  and whether there was a risk of burning out the bullpen trying to win each game, Lovullo stated he was aware of the workload but would press ahead. 

"We're full throttle. We just gotta go. We've got to win baseball games. We don't have a chance to reset things, we don't have a chance to slow down. I'm going to ask a lot of everybody....... This is an opportunity that we all talk about. It's one shot, one chance. I don't care about next year. That was the target date everybody talked about but I care about right now."

Game three of the series is tomorrow night at 5:10 P.M.  Zach Davies will make his return from the injured list to face 33 year old right-hander Fernando Cruz.