Record: 64-68. Pace: 79-83. Change on 2024: -11.
The good news. The D-backs almost got a quality start, their pitcher allowing two solo HR over 5.2 innings, on four hits and a walk, with six strikeouts. The bad news. That was actually reliever Bryce Jarvis. He took over after a wretched start from Eduardo Rodriguez who melted down in the third inning, and left with one out there, having dropped his team in a 5-0 hole. Jarvis did yeoman’s work, and the Arizona offense responded with a five-spot of their own in the sixth. But they were unable to close the gap completely, and instead received a pointed lesson in the difference between a team who will be playing baseball in October, and one who will be staying home.
Rodriguez actually looked good in the first two innings, dialing up five groundballs as he retired the Brewers in order both times up. But the wheels fell completely off in the third. A lead-off double was followed by five singles and a walk for Milwaukee. Rodriguez wasn’t particularly unlucky either, as only one of the six hits had an expected batting average below .490. It took him 35 pitches to record the first out, and RBI groundout which gave the home team a 5-0 lead, and that was the end of Eduardo’s night. The 2.1 innings was his shortest outing as a D-back – only the second time he has at least got through four frames.
It’s another case where Rodriguez has struggled against good line-ups. While wins are an imperfect statistic, it’s notable that of his five W’s, most came against the likes of the Marlins (22nd by OPS+), White Sox (27th) and Rockies (30th). He has now made 33 starts as a Diamondback, basically a full season’s worth. Let’s play the old Pitcher A/B game, comparing two pitchers over their first 33 starts for Arizona.
Pitcher A: 169 IP 206 H 112 R 103 ER 66 BB 163 K, 5.49 ERA, 8-12
Pitcher B: 178 IP 168 H 106 R 99 ER 50 BB 145 K, 5.01 ERA, 8-14
Pitcher A is Eduardo Rodriguez; Pitcher B was Madison Bumgarner. Worth mentioning: both pitchers were aged 32 through that point.
But all hail Bryce Jarvis, who saved the bullpen by pitching the rest of the way in a sterling effort. He became the seventh reliever in franchise history to record seventeen outs in a game – the last was Brandon Pfaadt in 2023. And one of those deserves a big asterisk, since it was Randy Johnson coming in the next day after a power outage stopped a game against the Padres, two innings in. Most of the rest were mop-up work: outside of the Big Unit game, Josh Collmenter was the only one with a positive Win Probability, as Jarvis was this evening. The 88 relief pitches Jarvis threw was also 7th in franchise history, the most since Caleb Smith tossed 93 in June 2022.
What looked like an embarrassing blowout, with a win probability of 4.4% when Rodriguez headed for the dugout, suddenly became a game in the sixth (above). Alek Thomas singled, and Gerardo Perdomo was hit on the wrist by a pitch – he went down in obvious pain, but stayed in the game. Ketel Marte singled to get Arizona on the board, and Corbin Carroll got his second lucky hit of the night, a squibber for an infield RBI hit, to follow a bloop which touched down due to Brewer miscommunication. Lourdes Gurriel then hammered his 19th home-run, a three-run shot to pull the D-backs within one at 6-5. He has 32 RBI in August, third-most for any calendar month by D-back, behind Gonzo’s 35 in June 2001, and J.D. Martinez’s 36 over the last month of 2017. Still time left…
However, the bottom half of the order continued to be an unmitigated disaster for the D-backs, and that’s why they were unable to get any closer. Slots 5-9 in the line-up were 1-for-20 with 12 strikeouts. Adrian Del Castillo wore the golden sombrero, while Blaze Alexander and Pavin Smith both went hitless with a trio of K’s. In addition to both halves of the pitching equation, Mike Hazen has to address a lot of question marks about spots in the line-up. Smith has done nothing since returning to deserve the first-base spot, while since becoming the regular third baseman at the trade deadline, Alexander has 30 strikeouts in 94 PA. He’s 5-for-37 with 17 K’s since August 14.
I also want to mention home-plate umpire Manny Gonzalez’s crappy zone. In the eighth inning, Jarvis had actually struck out the batter on the pitch before it was sent for an insurance home-run. That helped allow Abner Uribe to strut around like a certified idiot after completing the save. Big whoop: you retired Del Castillo, Alexander and Thomas, not Ohtani, Raleigh and Judge. Quite took me back to the days of Ryan Braun and Nyjer Morgan, when the Brewers were remarkably easy to hate. Given the complimentary things I said about them in the GDT, and the unsatisfactory alternatives in the NL playoff teams, I’d rather not go back to those days.
Click here for details, at Fangraphs.com
Thunder: Lourdes Gurriel, +18.9%
Lightning: Bryce Jarvis, +4.8%
Haboob: Eduardo Rodriguez, -30.4%
Microburst: Gabriel Moreno, -11.4%
It is worth mentioning that due to mechanical difficulties, the D-backs plane did not get into Milwaukee until some time after four this morning. Perhaps that was a factor. Anyway, it was a surprisingly active Gameday Thread, given the early start. Off-topic discussion centered in particular on the summer storm which was sweeping across Phoenix, with various SnakePitters reporting damage and power outages. I hope everyone awakens safe and intact tomorrow morning. Comment of the thread to ChefAZ, largely because it’s the first Sedona Red comment I saw scrolling down, and I want to go watch a movie. 🙂
Back at it again tomorrow, with the same two teams and another 4:40 pm start time. Maybe our pitcher, scheduled to be Brandon Pfaadt, will get through three innings?