Jorge Soler 2 Homers, 5 RBI Crush Brandon Pfaadt, D-backs

The rookie right-hander hit hard for the second straight start

Brandon Pfaadt had another very rough outing in the follow up to his rocky major league debut in Texas. Tonight he gave up six runs in five innings as the Diamondbacks fell 6-2 to the Miami Marlins. Five of the six runs were driven in by Jorge Soler, who smashed a 468 foot three-run homer in the second and followed that up with a two-run blast in the fifth inning. 

Prior to the game pitching coach Brent Strom talk about Pfaadt's need to learn to maneuver around certain hitters and go after the next guy if necessary.  Throwing pitches in the middle of zone was what hurt Pfaadt in his first outing when he gave up four homers and seven runs against the Rangers last week. Tonight Pfaadt had the the same problem and it cost him. 

He gave up two singles and a double in the first inning, and was fortunate to get out of the inning with just one run allowed.  He got two quick outs in the second inning, but then gave up a double to Jon Berti and a walk to Jazz Chisholm, setting up Soler's blast on a 94 MPH fastball in the middle of the plate.  The second homer in the 5th inning was a slider that stayed in the middle of the plate as well. There were several other pitches right in the middle of the zone that were hit hard either for base hits or hard outs. 

468FT in all its glory.

ADIÓS, MAMACITA LINDA!! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/heJaUg1cI3

— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) May 10, 2023

Pfaadt has now thrown 9.2 innings and given up 13 runs, with six homers allowed. It's an enormously disappointing start for the top pitching prospect. Ranked as the Number 2 prospect by Inside the Diamondbacks and number 22 overall in MLB  by Baseball America, the team was counting on him to provide quality innings and stabilize a rotation spot. Torey Lovullo said after the game that Pfaadt would definitely be making his next start, scheduled for Sunday against the Giants. 

Lovullo also said that Pfaadt was too fastball reliant in the early going, and then in the middle innings the opposite was true. For his part Pfaadt felt the biggest reason he was leaving pitches in the middle was because he was nitpicking early in counts missing on the corners and then forced to come into the zone.  You can listen to his post game comments in the SoundCloud link below. 

Marlins starter Jesús Luzardo allowed traffic on the bases, giving up seven hits and two walks in six innings. But he allowed just one run as the D-backs struggled again with runners in scoring position, going just 1-7 against Luzardo , and ending the game 2-9 in those situations.  That's been a trend lately. After hitting an even .300 with runners in scoring position through the end of April (74-247), the D-backs are just 14-69, .203 w/RISP in May.  Lovullo said that was mostly due to the ebb and flow of the season, but the hitters may be expanding in those situations

Nick Ahmed had an RBI base hit in the fourth inning, driving in Christian Walker, and also singled in the eighth inning.  Evan Longoria hit a solo homer to left in the bottom of the eighth for the D-backs second run of the game.  It was Longoria's fourth homer of the season. He also had a double and a single The D-backs had 11 hits but left 10 men on base.