A few things about Brandon Pfaadt’s recent streak of success. He has now gone nine outings in a row without defeat, though he needs a couple more before it starts to get impressive. Ryne Nelson went 11 starts, through early this season without defeat: despite averaging almost six innings per outing, he was just 1-0 in those games. Once you get past a dozen, there’s Zac Gallen’s 16 unbeaten starts in 2022, and the franchise record of 19 which belongs – as I’m sure you can all guess – to… Brian Anderson, in 1999-2000. Also of note: Zach Davies in 2022, managing to make 11 consecutive starts without a loss or a win: 11 no-decisions.
It was also Brandon’s ninth consecutive outing allowing 2 ER or less. For D-backs’ starters, that’s already in elevated territory. You need to go back to 2013 to find a longer streak, when Patrick Corbin went ten in a row, including his final outing of 2012. Dan Haren matched that in 2009. But here, the record holder IS someone you would expect: Randy Johnson, who had 14 straight starts allowing two earned runs or fewer in 1999. Of course, the Big Unit being the Big Unit, they averaged over eight innings, with six complete games and 158 K’s in 113 IP. Despite the 1.51 ERA, his record was only 5-6, due mostly to getting zero runs of support in the first four games!
Finally, where does Brandon stand among the best spans by ERA in franchise history? He’s at 1.15 over nine. That trails a pair by Johnson – one in the 1999 streak of 1.09, and another the following year of 0.97. But the champion is Zac Gallen who, in 2022 had a nine-start run where he had a 0.61 ERA, allowing just four earned runs over 61 innings. Indeed, he had a twelve-game span with a 1.15 ERA which matches Pfaadt’s nine-game run. So let’s see if Brandon can keep things going through the rest of the month, and then we’ll reassess – as well as his ongoing streak of 189 batters faced without allowing a home-run.