Record: 64-67. Pace: 79-83. Change on 2024: -11.
A four-game winning streak had, once again, begun to spark whispers of “We can still do this!” among the more optimistic corners of Arizona fandom. The Mets had already lost, and if the D-backs could complete a sweep of the Reds, it would have pulled them to 4.5 back of New York, and also two behind their opponents. However, it was not to be. The Reds remained the only team in the majors not to be swept, and also clinched the season series against the D-backs, effectively giving them a four-game margin over Arizona. With the schedule only getting tougher going forward for the Diamondbacks, it probably indicates all right-thinking fans will re-enter “This is good practice for 2026” mode. Until the next four-game winning streak anyway.
It started well enough, leadoff man Geraldo Perdomo tripling on a ball hit down into the right-field corner, which didn’t carom back out. He scored with two outs, on a Lourdes Gurriel sacrifice fly, and the Diamondbacks had jumped out to an early lead again. That was the good news. The bad news? Arizona wouldn’t get another hit until Corbin Carroll’s two-out single in the eighth inning. But let’s talk a bit more about Perdomo. There’s a real case to be made that he has been the team’s MVP this year. By bWAR coming into today, he had been worth 5.0, a full win more than Ketel Marte and Carroll (both 4.0). fWAR concurs, having Perdomo at 5.3 wins, ahead of Carroll (5.1) and Marte (4.3). Both metrics have him ranked fourth in the entire National League.
His actions off the field don’t hurt. In the recent kerfuffle over Marte’s days off, it was notable that it was Perdomo who made the most striking statement in defense of his team-mate, interrupting the manager’s press conference to do so. And just today, it came out that Geraldo was leading by example, playing through the pain of a bone bruise in his left hand for several months. And he’s still aged only 25. Dunno about you, but at that age, I was not leading anything. 1AZFan1 perhaps put it best, apparently seeing this coming in January: “Gerry’s effect on the entire club is special. Something that we can’t properly quantify. To my eye, there is only one Geraldo Perdomo. He may not rack up WAR, but he is a classic greater-than-the-sum-of-his-parts player.“
I feel comfortable devoting a couple of paragraphs to this, because with one exception, there was precious little else worth positive comment. That exception was Zac Gallen, who had his best start in a while. Zac tossed six innings of one-run ball, on four hits and a walk with seven strikeouts. The resulting Game Score of 66 was Zac’s highest since July 7, but the lack of offense doomed him to a no-decision today. It was only his fifth ND in 27 starts: you don’t see that often these days, with pitchers going less deep. Indeed, Gallen’s 22 decisions going into play today was the most in the majors, with the Giants’ Logan Webb and the Nationals’ Mitchell Parker the only others with more than twenty. This was a tough ND, to be sure.
The Reds tied things up in the sixth, on a play the D-backs would like to have back. Noelvi Marte (no relation) hit a pitch to deep left-center, Alek Thomas taking a weird route to the ball and it went over his head. He seemed to take a bit of time getting it back to the infield, and Perdomo’s throw to third caromed off the heel of the runner as they slid into third, and into foul territory, allowing them to score. It looked like worse was to follow in the seventh when Juan Morillo relieved Gallen, and loaded the bases with one out, on a hit and two walks. But Kyle Backhus took over, and his first pitch resulted in a tailor-made double-play ball to Perdomo, who stepped on second and fired to first, ending the threat.
This proved only a temporary reprieve, as the Reds batted around in the eighth, sending ten men to the plate in a five-run inning. Most of the damage came off Juan Burgos, who was clearly due for a meltdown, not having allowed an earned run since arriving from Seattle in the Eugenio Suarez trade. That is no longer the case. This afternoon, he retired one of the six batters faced, and was charged with four earned runs, a three-run homer to Spencer Steer being the back-breaker. John Curtiss mopped up the final four outs, and Carroll’s single in the eighth was Arizona’s second and final hit. While the bullpen certainly bears some responsibility, you won’t win many games with two hits, going 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, and striking out a dozen times.
Carroll did reach base three times, drawing two walks in addition to his hit, and also stole two bases to put him in the 20 HR/20 SB club for the third consecutive season. Before Corbin, the last D-backs to do it were a pair in 2016: you would probably (and correctly) guess Paul Goldschmidt, but the other was the much less remembered Jean Segura. Here’s the list, not including Carroll’s 2025. Also of note, Perdomo struck out twice, his first multi-K game since July 1st. Though that 45-game streak is well short of the franchise best. Mark Grace went almost the entire World Series season without a two-K appearance, from April 22nd through September 19th, a run of 113 consecutive games.
Click here for details, at Fangraphs.com
Moby Dick: Zac Gallen, +20.7%
Jaws: Kyle Backhus, +20.1
Orca, Killer Whale: Juan Burgos, -42.0%
Sharknado: Morillo, -15.5%; Marte, -11.0%
It was a lively and thoroughly entertaining Gameday Thread – right up until the Steer home-run, when it suddenly resembled the Sonoran Desert, for perfectly understandable reasons. A wide-ranging discussion up until that point, including the works of James Joyce, which segued into a discussion of unreadable books, that explains the captions on the Win Probability graph. But for Comment of the Game, we go with KJKrug and about the most un-Joyceian comment possible.
Yes: yes, you do. It’s onto the road for the D-backs and a tough road trip to Milwaukee and Los Angeles. Eduardo Rodriguez starts tomorrow against the Brewers, with a first pitch at 4:40 pm Arizona time.