{"id":659480,"date":"2026-04-02T20:28:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659480\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:28:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:28:17","slug":"2-d-backs-pitching-prospects-begin-silencing-doubts-with-brilliant-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/659480\/","title":{"rendered":"2 D-backs Pitching Prospects Begin Silencing Doubts with Brilliant Starts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ important left-handed pitching prospects delivered excellent scoreless performances in their two most recent starts of the Triple-A season with the Reno Aces.<\/p>\n

Dual southpaws Kohl Drake <\/a>and Mitch Bratt \u2014 the primary returns in the trade that sent Merrill Kelly<\/a> to the Texas Rangers at the Deadline \u2014 did not have strong spring trainings<\/a>. Both arms posted ERAs of 9.00 or above in three Cactus League appearances.<\/p>\n

But on Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon, the two arms locked in for excellent Triple-A starts.<\/p>\n

Mitch Bratt makes scoreless first AAA start\"Mar<\/p>\n

Mar 13, 2023; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Canada pitcher Mitch Bratt reacts after being pulled from the game in the first inning against USA during the World Baseball Classic at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Bratt’s outing on Wednesday was his first at the Triple-A level. Bratt threw to a 3.98 ERA and 3.33 FIP with the Double-A Amarillo Sod Poodles in 2025, but the jump to an offense-heavy Pacific Coast League can often be extremely rough for a young arm.<\/p>\n

But Bratt was not rattled. He only threw 49 pitches, but managed to navigate four scoreless innings, giving up two hits and one walk while punching out three. <\/p>\n

The Aces would go on to win that game 1-0, in parallel with their big-league counterparts<\/a>. It was a truly excellent day of pitching for Reno, who got scoreless appearances by Isaiah Campbell, Gerardo Carrillo and Yilber Diaz \u2014 with a 1-2-3 ninth-inning save by Drey Jameson. <\/p>\n

Kohl Drake rebounds from rough debut with brilliant outing\"Arizona<\/p>\n

Arizona Diamondbacks left-hander Kohl Drake (58) pitches against the Cleveland Guardians at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale on March 1, 2026. | Joe Rondone\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Drake’s first outing of 2026 was not the most positive. He allowed three runs in four innings thanks to a pair of home runs on March 27 \u2014 Reno’s opening day. It is worth noting that he recorded six strikeouts despite the hard contact, however.<\/p>\n

But Drake rebounded from that start in truly elite fashion on Thursday. In another low-scoring affair between the Reno Aces and Albuquerque Isotopes, Drake fired five scoreless, hitless innings. His lone base traffic came from a pair of walks, and he struck out five batters along the way. <\/p>\n

It was exactly the type of performance that Drake needs to show he can deliver more frequently. The left-hander had a 9.18 ERA in a small sample size of four Triple-A starts after coming over to Arizona in 2025, before he was shut down with a shoulder injury. <\/p>\n

There’s still a way to go in terms of development for both of these left-handers, but if they continue on this upward path, the D-backs will suddenly find themselves in unfamiliar (but positive) territory \u2014 loaded with left-handed pitching depth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ important left-handed pitching prospects delivered excellent scoreless performances in their two most recent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,4314,5,38,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-659480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-diamondbacks","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","10":"tag-arizonadiamondbacks","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-diamondbacks","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116337006251675778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}