In case Friday night’s battle was not enough of a thriller, the Arizona Diamondbacks, somehow, someway, with possibly the season’s trajectory on the line, managed to defeat the San Diego Padres 7-5 in a game that most likely aged Torey Lovullo a good five years.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!It is not easy to shake off a loss like Friday’s. When you overcome a 7-2 deficit in the 9th inning, only to lose 10-8 due to a faltering bullpen, the team morale is low, the bullpen trust is low, and inversely, the opposing team’s mojo is extremely high.
Which is why the D-backs’ win over the Padres was anything but easy. It took some timely moves from Lovullo, some clutch hits, seven total pitchers, 172 pitches from Arizona’s staff, and over 3 and a half hours for the Diamondbacks to prevent a third blown save in the past five games.
Brandon Pfaadt Faces Early Trouble
From the get-go, late drama seemed inevitable for the Diamondbacks. While Brandon Pfaadt’s final stat line of 4.1 innings pitched while allowing just one earned run and striking out six batters seems great on paper, those four innings were a grind.
In the bottom of the 1st, Luis Arraez did what he does best, smashing a base hit up the middle to get the Padres‘ offense going. Then, following a Jake Cronenworth infield single, Manny Machado, coming off his two-run walk-off homer from the night prior, picked up right where he left off, driving in Arraez on a base knock. Pfaadt was ultimately faced with a tense situation just four batters into the game, as he had to navigate runners on 1st and 2nd base with just one out.
Which he did by striking out Donovan Solano and then getting Jackson Merrill to fly out to center.
Fast forward a couple of innings, and things got stressful again for Pfaadt with the Diamondbacks holding a 2-1 lead. Ha-Seong Kim led off the 5th inning with a double, then Luis Arraez reached on a line drive right back at Pfaadt’s ankle.
While this set the stage for runners on first and third with just one out, it also forced Brandon Pfaadt out of the game.
In what was the start of a long six innings of bullpen work, Kevin Ginkel fought out of the jam he inherited by striking out Profar and Cronenworth. The Padres stranded a total of five batters on base in the first five innings.
GOLD STAR GINKS.⭐️ pic.twitter.com/ylRTcy9YVY
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) July 7, 2024
Bullpen Plays with Disaster
Building upon their 2-1 lead, the Diamondbacks piled on some much-needed insurance runs with a rally sparked by none other than Eugenio Suarez. After Suarez got on base to lead things off, Jose Herrera, who started instead of Gabriel Moreno, drove a double down the line to make it a 3-1 game. It was Herrera’s third hit of the season.
Two batters later, Geraldo Perdomo one-upped Herrera by lacing a two-out triple, extending the Diamondbacks’ lead to three runs.
A Domo three-bagger makes it a 3-run lead! ???? pic.twitter.com/EWqkEjgyiq
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) July 7, 2024
But even this lead was not safe with the current state of the D-backs’ bullpen.
In the bottom half of the 7th, the Padres got the small ball game working. Ha-Seong Kim first legged out a ground ball hit to Geraldo Perdomo, then Kyle Higashioka reached on a slow ground ball to Eugenio Suarez at third base.
Off Joe Mantiply, Jurickson Profar, also a hero in Friday’s classic, doubled the Padres back to life. One batter later, Cronenworth bunted in Luis Arraez, making it 4-3.
Ha-Seong Kim ultimately tied things up in the 8th inning with a two-out double. The Diamondbacks, instead of pitching around Kim, who had already recorded two hits on the night, decided to bring in Ryan Thompson to pitch against the red-hot batter. Postgame, manager Torey Lovullo spoke about his decision to bring in Thompson rather than intentionally walking Kim: “We liked the matchup, we had the base open, there were 1,000 possibilities, but the catcher, the 9-hole hitter had been hot, he has been hurting us. I just felt like Ryan was going to make pitches; he just made a mistake in the middle of the zone.”
Extra Innings Drama
In case 9 innings of drama was not enough, the Diamondbacks elected to make things as interesting as possible in extra innings.
To start the top of the 10th, Geraldo Perdomo reached on a bunt single. Then, Randal Grichuk, pinch-hitting for Joc Pederson, drew a five-pitch walk to bring up slugger Christian Walker in a bases-loaded, nobody out situation. Walker, knowing the Diamondbacks did not need to put one into the bleachers in left field, smacked a ball right back up the middle to drive in two runs.
The Diamondbacks went on to score one more run in the 10th inning, making it a 7-4 lead.
While typically in a situation like this, Torey Lovullo is faced with an easy decision: bring in the closer, Paul Sewald. However, considering Sewald has blown two consecutive saves, Lovullo was forced to hand the ball over to relatively inexperienced Thyago Vieira.
To give credit to Vieira, he has been lights out as of late, having tossed 5.1 consecutive shutout innings entering the night. But the Diamondbacks have ultimately relied on Vieira in non-leverage situations, so, when his name was called, things went south quickly.
Vieira struggled to find the strike zone against Manny Machado, walking him in five pitches, bringing the tying run up to the plate. Donovan Solano then laced a ball into right field, which Corbin Carroll misread a bit, leading to the tying run being in scoring position, and still nobody out.
After Vieira did strike out the final batter that he would ultimately face, he forced Humberto Castellanos, who had pitched two shutout innings the night prior, into a nightmare situation as Ha-Seong Kim stepped up to the plate once again with runners in scoring position.
Somehow, Castellanos struck out Kim on four pitches, then got Kyle Higashioka to fly out to left field to end the game.
It was only fitting that a game like this ended with the bases loaded.
And exhale. ???????? pic.twitter.com/M1ki1BGHjT
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) July 7, 2024
Time for a Breather
The Diamondbacks’ bullpen may be completely drained, but at the end of the day, they found a way to pick up a critical win in a game that they had no business winning. The Diamondbacks forced the Padres to strand 13 runners in scoring position, figured out how to work around Corbin Carroll going 0-5 in the leadoff spot, and survived a thriller without their, as of recent, unreliable closer.
As Jose Herrera described it on the Diamondbacks’ postgame broadcast, “I think it was an incredible night for us. We stayed in engaged the whole game, fighting back all the way through the game. I think it was a special night for us. We deserved to win this game for how hard we fought together.”
Arizona, over their last seven games, holds a record of 5-2. This would be a perfect 7-0 if it were not for the two Paul Sewald blown saves.
Nevertheless, old reliable Christian Walker was there to pick the offense up, and Humberto Castellanos shut the door to give the Diamondbacks a chance to take a series win tomorrow afternoon.
With the first pitch at 1:10 pm, a win for Arizona would bring their record back to .500 and bring them within one game of an NL Wild Card spot. Ryne Nelson (5-6) is expected to take the mound for the Diamondbacks, and Dylan Cease (7-7) will start for the Padres.
