Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images
Chase Field- Downtown Phoenix
San Diego dropped the first of three games in Arizona this evening. The Diamondbacks jumped on the Padres’ starter JP Sears early and often, piling up 10 hits against him and scoring in each of the first four innings. San Diego strung some offense together against starter Brandon Pfaadt, but failed to get anything going against Arizona’s relievers. The Snakes’ Alek Thomas added a solo shot for good measure, as the D-Backs took the 6-2 victory.
Acquired alongside Mason Miller from the A’s, JP Sears made his Padre debut. The 29-year-old lefty flashed his six-pitch arsenal for the first time in brown and gold. While he doesn’t excel in velocity, his low arm slot creates impressive east-to-west movement.
For the Diamondbacks, Brandon Pfaadt made his 23rd start of 2o25. Pfaadt might as well be the right-handed variant of Sears, featuring six pitches, a low arm slot, and frequent sweepers. Last time out, he allowed seven runs over four and two-thirds innings, tipping his ERA above five. His one, overarching issue is allowing hard contact. He surrenders a 91.9 MPH average exit velocity, and falls in the bottom 3% of the MLB in Barrel Rate, per Baseball Savant.
However, the first inning was about the opposite of what type of pitcher Pfaadt has been in 2025. Despite posting just a 5% walk rate, he walked the first two Padre hitters. However, he worked around the miscues flawlessly. He struck out Manny Machado on three pitches, and induced groundouts of Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts to escape.
JP Sears worked with the same traffic as Pfaadt saw in his opening frame. He allowed back-to-back singles against Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll to lead off the game. Working with two on and nobody out, he retired Geraldo Perdomo, but couldn’t keep Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in the infield. A hard-hit ground ball from Gurriel Jr. made its way into the outfield, scoring Marte as the game’s first run. Fortunately, Sears limited the damage to just a run, striking out both Tyler Locklear and James McCann to end the inning.
San Diego could only come up with a catcher’s interference call, before the Snakes hopped back onto Sears. A leadoff walk, single, and hit by pitch loaded the bases before retiring a batter. With the notorious lefty-killer Ketel Marte coming up, it seemed like a crooked number was imminent. However, Sears punched out Marte on a high fastball, and limited Carroll to a sacrifice fly. Geraldo Perdomo popped out, allowing the Padres to escape the bases loaded, nobody out scenario with just the one run allowed
San Diego got a much needed answer back in the second inning, cashing in on a pair of doubles. First, Manny Machado smoked a line drive to left field, forcing Gurriel Jr. to his left. Machado broke for second in response, . However, replay review proved that Machado’s right foot evaded the tag and slid in safely. Moments later, Jackson Merrill kept up his recent surge of RBIs with a run-scoring double. He found the left-center field gap, and found it with authority at 105.9 MPH off the bat, making the score 2-1.
Just an inning later, the Diamondbacks punched back thanks to Tyler Locklear. Recently traded in exchange for Eugenio Suárez, Locklear connected on his first home run with Arizona. In the fourth, Arizona plated two more after Marte, Carroll, and company capitalized on a double from Jorge Barrosa, the nine-hole hitter. Carroll doubled off the wall in right, and Gurriel Jr. blooped a single to stretch the Snakes’ lead to 5-1.
Belted. pic.twitter.com/TrHWVZeyk9
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) August 5, 2025
Sears faced a heavy workload through the early innings. He checked in at 84 pitches through four innings, after allowing ten hits and a walk. His fastball was down in velocity, but played well when thrown outside the zone, specifically up top. His sweeper allowed the hardest contact, as hitters connected well on the pitch when it was poorly located. Overall, it wasn’t a fireworks show by any means. Instead, it was more of a water sprinkler, picking and choosing their spots in front of the Padres outfielders.
Just as he did back in San Diego at the beginning of July, Pfaadt handled the Padres’ lineup handily. His command was impressive, keeping his sinker, changeup, and sweeper down in the zone all night. He added 1-2 inches of downwards movement on the trio of offerings. Lastly, he mixed in his cutter here and there, and kept some of the Padres hottest bats quiet. Luis Arraez— who came into the night riding the longest active hit streak of 16 games— struck out on three pitches and grounded out weakly against Pfaadt. He exited after 100 pitches, allowing two runs on five hits and three walks, while striking out four.
The Padres second run came in the top half of the sixth, as Pfaadt was wearing down. A two-out rally included a walk from Gavin Sheets and an infield hit from Ramon Laureano. The run-scorer came at the hands of Jake Cronenworth, who lined a single on a pretty swing to right field. The RBI forced Arizona manager Torey Lovullo to call on his bullpen a batter sooner than he would’ve liked.
Wandy Peralta continued an impressive stretch of outings, cruising through the Diamondbacks’ 9-1-2 hitters using just nine pitches in the seventh. He lowered his season ERA to 3.18, by sticking to his calling card—ground ball outs. Coming back out for the seventh inning, he put up another zero with the help of a double play.
Out of the Arizona bullpen, Andrew Hoffmann and Kyle Backhus kept the Padres at bay. Combining to finish the game after Pfaadt exited, they allowed just one hit to the Padres down the stretch. Hoffmann’s changeup, and Backhus’s
In the bottom of the eighth, a surging Alek Thomas faced a struggling Yuki Matsui with two outs. With two strikes, Matsui missed middle-middle with a fastball and Thomas shot it out to left for a home run. The blast extended the Snakes’ lead to four, as they entered the ninth on top 6-2.
Alek Thomas is ON FIRE
He has 4-straight multi-hit games and he’s hitting .371 in the 2nd half! pic.twitter.com/YVswPu6pIq
— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) August 5, 2025
Backhus finished off the ninth inning, allowing only a soft single to Ramon Laureano. Fernando Tatis Jr. gave the last out a ride to center, but it ultimately fell into the glove of Thomas in center just in front of the wall.
San Diego will look to even the series tomorrow, with Yu Darvish taking the ball. Meanhwile, Arizona’s Ryne Nelson will counter Darvish. San Diego has fared well against Nelson historically, hitting .254 with 10 home runs. First pitch will commence at 6:40 PM.
A 17-year-old San Diego native, Willy Warren is a baseball fan at heart who created High Leverage Baseball, a combination of around-the-league statistical analysis and breakdowns on X, and daily newsletters on the TikTok platform. Willy passionately studies Journalism at San Dieguito Academy, and is working to become billingual in Spanish to assist in communicating with Latin-born players and coaches.
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