Diamondbacks’ Brandon Pfaadt becoming one of MLB’s best at getting deep in games

Not many starting pitchers around Major League Baseball are pitching deep into games as consistently as Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Brandon Pfaadt.

Pfaadt put together arguably his best start of the season on Sunday at Wrigley Field, outdueling Cubs All-Star Shota Imanaga. Imanaga started the game with five hitless innings but exited down 1-0, as Pfaadt delivered seven shutout frames with one hit allowed and seven strikeouts.

The 25-year-old has recorded 21 outs three times this season, which is not as eye-popping as how often he gives the D-backs six quality frames.

Pfaadt is one of 11 pitchers in MLB with 15 starts of six-plus innings and one of 12 with 19 starts of 5-plus innings. He has a team-leading 20 starts this season and only exited before the end of the fifth inning one time. That outlier occurred at Petco Park when he took a comebacker off the leg and exited for injury, not performance. He had thrown 4.1 innings and allowed one earned run.

“I think number one goal is innings pitched,” Pfaadt told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo. “Me being aggressive every start, early on I’m giving them something to hit and being aggressive. That’s what helps me get deeper into games, into that sixth, seventh inning. Those 1-2-3 innings are the most important part of being able to do that, because obviously if you have 20-30-pitch innings, that racks up the pitch count.

“Just focusing on being aggressive, going out there and throwing quality strikes. I think last year we kind of got into trouble with just throwing strikes and not quality strikes. I think that’s where we’ve made the adjustment in the postseason last year and coming into this year.”

Sit back, relax, and enjoy all 11 of @b_pfaadt‘s strikeouts again. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/MdQXPzf4uu

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 28, 2024

Pfaadt has been masterful at getting ahead of opposing hitters, throwing first-pitch strikes 70.6% of the time. Only Milwaukee’s Tobias Myers and Boston’s Nick Pivetta have higher rates, and Pfaadt has thrown approximately 40 more innings than either of them. That has helped him keep the walks down to 5.5%, No. 11 in baseball.

Home runs were a problem when he came up last season from the get-go. He has not been immune this season, most commonly allowing them with the fastball — although his last three starts have been long ball free.

Part of the equation that has led him to being so efficient is the continued development of the sinker. It has been his main put-away pitch this season. With his ability to tunnel, the sinker and sweeper split the plate and can look like this:

Brandon Pfaadt, 93mph Sinker and 85mph Sweeper, Overlay ⬅️ ➡️ pic.twitter.com/kRyelrqTLO

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 19, 2023

He threw the sinker 9.9% last season — mostly after his first MLB stint — and that is up to 21.1% this year.

“I think that the sinker opened up the four-seam a ton,” Pfaadt said. “I feel just as comfortable throwing a sinker as a four-seam now and I think it’s benefited everything the most, just that sinker coming into play and keeping them off the fastball just a little bit more.

“That sinker opens up the offspeed just as much as the four-seam. So being able to use both fastballs to righties and lefties, I think that’s kind of where we’ve benefited the most.”

Pfaadt said his start at Wrigley Field was an “A” outing in terms of how his stuff felt, being able to throw all of his pitches in big spots. Arizona lost the game in extras 2-1, but Pfaadt said that’s baseball and his teammates have picked him up many times.

The second-year pro leads the D-backs in innings pitched by far with 120.1. Ryne Nelson is next with 92.1 considering how banged up the rotation around them has been. But the injury fortune is starting to turn around, as Jordan Montgomery and Zac Gallen have come off the injured list with Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez making progress to get back.

“Once we get those guys back, that just builds our puzzle and I think benefits us more than anything,” Pfaadt said. “Especially Merrill and E-Rod. Getting those guys back, they’ve been doing it for years. They’re an ace of their own, and getting those guys back along with the pieces we have, it’s gonna be something special.”

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