Who needs a SP? Bratt bests Mize in D-backs W over Padres

PHOENIX — See, the Arizona Diamondbacks didn’t need a starting pitcher at the trade deadline after all.

Everyone would disagree with that (even the D-backs front office), but for one game on Wednesday, that proved to be the case in a 10-4 win over the San Diego Padres.

Arizona rookie Mitch Bratt was vastly superior to Padres starter Casey Mize, a trade target of Arizona’s that could have wound up replacing Bratt in the rotation. Instead, he landed on a division rival and direct competitor for the National League Wild Card race.

Bratt held San Diego scoreless in a career-high seven innings, while Mize gave up a season-high eight earned runs and nine hits.

It wouldn’t be surprising to hear there was some level of “I’ll show you guys” from the starting pitchers after how adamant general manager Mike Hazen was about wanting to acquire one. Bratt, however, denied that it’s the case for him.

“Not really,” Bratt said. “I feel like there’s enough things I need to work on or worry about on the field compared to off-the-field stuff.”

The rookie said he put his phone away during Monday’s trade deadline, noting, “If something’s gonna happen, something’s gonna happen.”

“I think Mike made a statement saying he believes in the group of guys that are sitting in that room right now,” Lovullo said when asked if Hazen’s failed desires could be a source of motivation for the pitchers.

Mize’s rough evening was buffed up by five straight D-backs hits with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning. A Tyler Locklear ground-rule double was followed by four singles. Gabriel Moreno then walked with the bases loaded to end Mize’s night.

A Tim Tawa sacrifice fly, on a night he also clocked a solo dinger, extended the D-backs’ lead to 6-0 before Ildemaro Vargas ripped a double into left-center that scored two more for a six-run fourth inning, one shy of tying their most in a single inning this season.

Coming into Wednesday, Bratt had 12 strikeouts in 20.2 innings pitched across five appearances. He punched out a career-high nine against San Diego, who only managed a single and three walks off him.

Within this storyline was a young player having his breakthrough performance in the big leagues. Bratt said he couldn’t feel his legs after he got his final out while walking off the mound, and afterwards in the clubhouse was greeted with a celebration that included liquids such as mouthwash getting poured on him.

His eyes still stung as he was talking to the media.

“It’s a surreal feeling to be honest,” Bratt said. “I don’t think it’s going to set in for quite some time.”

Bratt’s season ERA dropped to 3.90. He has reached five innings pitched in three straight outings, a solid barometer for a rookie, and has given up one earned run in his last two. He is competing directly with fellow first-year lefty Kohl Drake for a rotation spot, due to the impending return of Michael Soroka, likely coming either Sunday or Monday. Drake has some work to do in the series finale on Thursday to hold his position, and he might not have anything he can do now with how Bratt has pitched the last week.

Mize made his Padres debut on a night it easily could have been his debut for the other side. While the D-backs’ pursuit of Mize in Detroit was not reported to the lengths of how Arizona nearly acquired Clay Holmes, or was in on Jose Soriano, Arizona Sports’ John Gambadoro reported Mize was of interest.

Mize had a great 2021 season before missing nearly all of 2022 and then all of 2023 due to injury. He returned in 2024 with a solid season before really evolving. Among the 79 starters that have made at least 40 starts since the beginning of 2025, Mize ranks 20th in ERA (3.44) and WHIP (1.167), per Stathead.

The Athletic noted Mize’s home splits are a whole lot better than on the road, with that and his high fly-ball rate as causes for concern that they believe makes him more of a backend guy instead of a top-3 leader in the rotation. But in pitcher-friendly San Diego, that shouldn’t be much of an issue. It was in hitter-friendly Phoenix on Wednesday.

Whatever contributing factors led to San Diego getting Mize over Arizona, the bottom line is that the Padres upgraded significantly and the D-backs got nothing. You also wonder if Mize, whose trade was reported well after Holmes’ and Soriano’s just minutes before the deadline, was the last shot for both teams to further bolster their rotation and the D-backs were outbid at the buzzer with no other options left. That made it doubly as effective of a move for San Diego.

None of that mattered on Wednesday, and maybe it won’t in the overall race too.

Ryan Waldschmidt and Tawa had three hits while Corbin Carroll reached base in his first three plate appearances.

The D-backs now have a 5-4 advantage in the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Padres and regained a two-game lead over San Diego in the wild card standings. There are four games remaining between the pair of NL West squads, and the last three are the final three games of the regular season for each side at the end of September.

Ketel Marte, Nolan Arenado get midweek day off

Marte got a day off, five words that when strung together sure do send the Valley into a tizzy. The star second baseman has been known to ask for days off in the past, sometimes doing so for crucial games (like this one). So, whenever he misses a key game, it’s always a conversation, even when it was not his own doing.

Lovullo said pregame that both Marte and Arenado “were right at that point where their body was starting to say, ‘It’s time'” and that he had been bracing Marte for it across the last couple of days.

That was in response to a question of why both couldn’t continue to play for two more days until Friday kicks off a series with the Los Angeles Dodgers instead of an opponent with a crucial head-to-head tiebreaker.

Arenado had a great July and was 4-for-13 in his four August appearances while the break will give Marte an opportunity to snap out of one of the worst funks of his D-backs career. Over his last 26 games, Marte has a .535 OPS. Take out his injury-riddled 2022 that is the outlier of his time with Arizona and that’s the lowest OPS for Marte over a 26-game stretch since 2018, according to Stathead. Only three of those bunches in 2018 and a handful from 2022 were lower than this current rut.

If Marte expectedly returns to form, Arizona won’t be able to afford many more contests without him. But that shouldn’t be much of an issue. Across August and September of last year through a similar race, Marte was out for three total games and got two plate appearances in another before the D-backs were eliminated, so it’s important to contextualize what a huge talking point was actually about. Three-and-a-half games.

The lineup tweak was having the returning Moreno back in the cleanup spot, and new outfielder Lars Nootbaar taking the leadoff spot.

Nootbaar’s great statistical profile with his eye and ability to make contact has him as an ideal fit for a temporary reconfiguration. His chase rate in 2024 was the best in baseball, while his walk rate was in the 98th percentile, per Baseball Savant. Nootbaar was primarily a leadoff hitter with the Cardinals — starting 185 games there — but was also used all over the lineup, primarily in the five-, six- or seven-hole where he will likely be in Arizona. On Wednesday, he had a single and a walk.

Wednesday’s attendance

17,559

Up next

The four-game series wraps up on Thursday with Drake starting for Arizona. In three starts, he has allowed seven earned runs in 13 innings on 14 hits and five walks with 12 strikeouts. San Diego will send out Walker Buehler, a former revelation for the Dodgers in the late 2010s before floundering the last few years. He’s 22 starts in with a 5.18 ERA and 1.45 WHIP.

First pitch is at 6:40 p.m., with pregame coverage starting at 6 p.m. on ESPN 620 AM.

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