Yilber Diaz’s excellent debut went for naught in a heartbreaking, 5-4 extra-inning loss to the Atlanta Braves. The Diamondbacks were one strike away from making him a winner, but Paul Sewald served up a game-tying home run to Sean Murphy. Eventually, Arizona’s offense was unable to catch up, as the Braves pulled ahead for good in the 11th.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Diaz was excellent in his major league debut, holding the Braves to one run in six impressive innings in his major debut. Despite his electric debut, the Diamondbacks could not make him a winner. The most impressive part was his ability to pitch under pressure. In the third and the sixth innings, the Braves got multiple runners on base. The young right-hander kept his composure and executed some quality pitches to get out both jams.
“I can’t say enough good things about him from what I’ve seen,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo on the postgame coverage for Dbacks TV. “I normally watched him on the Field 3 or 4 over at Salt River [Fields], everything’s amplified and looked exactly the same. The mound presence, the demeanor, the ability to execute. It was a fantastic opening act for him.”
Diaz’s lone mistake came in the first inning. Austin Riley turned around an up-and-in fastball to a long home run to put the Braves on the board. With not much run support to work with, he continued to attack the Braves lineup. After striking out Marcell Ozuna with a slider to end the top of the sixth inning, he became the eighth pitcher in franchise history to go six or more innings and allow one run or fewer. The last pitcher to do that was Drey Jameson against the San Diego Padres on September 15, 2022.
The Diamondbacks would not score until after Diaz threw his last pitch. Geraldo Perdomo blooped out a ball into shallow left field that Braves shortstop kicked to allow Perdomo to advance to second. Corbin Carroll got him in on a high chopper that got through the hole at short. They took a 3-1 lead with three consecutive walks and a sacrifice fly. It could have more, but Matt Olson made a great play on a foul pop-up to prevent the Diamondbacks from scoring a fourth.
Scoreless innings by Kevin Ginkel and Ryan Thompson got the ball to the ninth. Sewald got another save opportunity, this time protecting a two-run lead. It looked like he was on his way to shaking a couple rough outings off, retiring Ozuna then Adam Duvall to start the inning. Eddie Rosario singled through the right side of the infield to get the tying run to the plate. Sewald jumped ahead of Murphy 1-2, but left a 91 MPH fastball up and out over the plate. Murphy crushed the ball to right center, landing in the pool section of Chase Field to tie the game.
Both teams traded runs in the 10th inning, with small ball scoring the ghost runner from second by both teams. Justin Martinez retired six of the seven hitters he faced, the lone baserunner being an infield single, but gave up some rare loud contact. Four of the six balls put into play against him were 100 MPH or greater. Eventually Atlanta took the lead in the 11th with the Diamondbacks failing to answer in the bottom half despite having the winning runs on base.
The loss stings for the Diamondbacks, especially considering each of their past three losses have included a Sewald blown save in the ninth. However, they will have a chance to win another game with their ace taking the mound in Zac Gallen. The Braves will counter with Chris Sale, in what should be one of the best pitching matchups of the 2024 season. First pitch at Chase Field will be at 6:40 P.M. MST.
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Michael McDermott covers the Arizona Diamondbacks and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @MichaelMcDMLB
