Dominic Canzone's Big Hits Spark Comeback Win

Brandon Pfaadt pitched well and the bullpen held on in 4-3 victory over Seattle.

Torey Lovullo let out an audible sigh of relief as he sat down in the interview room tonight after his team's 4-3 white knuckle victory over the Seattle Mariners.  His team entered the contest 6-15 for the month of July and the wins have been few and far between.  "Any win is a good win, especially for the grind we've been through over the past several days" the manager said. 

Brandon Pfaadt  entered the game tonight with an 8.81 ERA in his first seven starts. He seemed to have turned a corner in his previous outing though, throwing five scoreless before allowing three solo homers in the 6th inning on July 22nd. Tonight he lasted  5.2 innings, giving up  single runs in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings.  He managed to work around a lot of base hits, including several ground ball singles. Two of the runs scored on sacrifice flys, helping him limit the  damage. He did give up a solo homer to Tom Murphy in the 4th inning, but the pitch was a decently placed fastball up at the top and on the edge of the strike zone. Pfaadt said, sometimes you just have to tip your cap. 

While it was far from a pristine outing, as he gave up eight hits in the game, he only walked one batter. Pfaadt struck out three, and managed to get seven swings and miss on his fastball for 35% whiff rate. His season average is 16% before tonight. It was an encouraging second straight competitive outing for the 24 year rookie right hander. 

Bryan Woo held the D-backs scoreless through the first three innings, but they got to him in the 4th.  Ketel Marte lead off with a walk and came all the way around to score on a double by Christian Walker that went all the way to the wall in right center.  Dominic Canzone then lined a base hit to score Walker and bring the D-backs to within 3-2. 

The very next inning Alek Thomas hit a leadoff triple and scored on a Carson Kelly base hit to tie it up at 3-3.  That's where things stood when Kevin Ginkel came into the game in the 8th and the red hot right hander struck out the size.  In the bottom half of the inning Corbin Carroll walked, moved to second on a balk, and then made a daring steal of third base with nobody out. It was his 32nd steal against just three caught. 

One out later Canzone came up and delivered another big base hit to score Carroll with the go ahead and game winning run. He shortened up his swing, delivering a bouncer up the middle on a 100 MPH fastball down from Andres Munoz.  Canzone was animated, pumping his fists as he ran up the line, clearly excited to be part of a potential comeback win. He later got doubled off first base on a line out to right field, but that could not put a damper on his performance.  "For sure it's an exciting moment obviously just to put your team on top and put them in the right direction is huge" he said. 

Lovullo  reiterated how impressed he's been with the rookie. "He's continuing to emerge as somebody that we're looking for in the middle of the lineup, I'm looking for his spot to come up, and he's earning that. He's an engaged hitter, swinging at strikes, and he puts the barrel on the baseball"

The drama was not over, as the D-backs had to navigate their way through a tense 9th inning. Ginkel recorded the first out of the inning against a right hand batter but at that point he'd already thrown 19 pitches and a left hand batter was coming up.  Lovullo decided to play the matchups and bring in Andrew Chafin, but that backfired as Cade Marlowe tripled on a ball to deep center. Chafin struck out the next batter, but then issued a two-out walk to left hand batter J.P. Crawford. That forced Lovullo's hand once again, as he brought in right hander Scott McGough to face Julio Rodriguez. 

Rodriguez fouled off pitch after pitch, and with the intensity ramping up with each one,  he finally struck out on the 8th pitch of the at bat, sealing the win for Arizona.  Lovullo spoke about his bullpen strategy. 

"It was probably a classic case of over managing. Sometimes you just gotta get out of the way. I'll learn my lessons and just keep moving on."

Lovullo went on to explain the logic in his mind was to play the right-left matchups and also expressed the desire to keep Ginkel available for tomorrow's game too.  But ultimately he conceded that Ginkel has been the hot hand and he probably should have just rode with him to finish out the game. 

Highlights

Diamondbacks Comeback to win 4-3 over Mariners https://t.co/NyddmfYEgI #MLBFilmRoom via @MLB

— Jack Sommers (@shoewizard59) July 30, 2023

With the win the D-backs pull within a half game of the Reds and the Phillies for the final wild card spot. The series finale is tomorrow, 1:10 P.M. Arizona time.  Merrill Kelly will take on Mariners starter Luis Castillo.