Brandon Pfaadt pitches best game of career, Diamondbacks lose to Giants in extras
Brandon Pfaadt threw nine shutout innings, but the Giants managed to squeak out a 5-1 victory over the Diamondbacks in 11 innings.
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PHOENIX — Brandon Pfaadt threw the game of his life with nine shutout innings on Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants, and yet, the Arizona Diamondbacks lost in 11 innings, 5-1.
The Diamondbacks (77-76) had opportunities with a runner on third base and less than two outs in the ninth and 10th innings but failed to pull through. They finished 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position on what became a rather frustrating afternoon.
The Giants (76-76) entered the 11th inning with only one hit, but they racked up five runs (four earned runs charged to John Curtiss) to prevent getting swept. Corbin Carroll hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom half to avoid the shutout.
The Diamondbacks did their job this week by winning the series and clinching the tiebreaker over San Francisco. Losing a very winnable finale and costing Pfaadt a complete-game shutout, however, shrinks their already miniscule room for error.
They fell to 2.0 games behind the Mets for the third National League Wild Card spot, pending New York’s game result on Wednesday evening against the San Diego Padres.
“This year has been so unpredictable and frustrating and very fulfilling on back-to-back days,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “I think we’ve absorbed and taken on a lot of tough losses this year, and the way that we turn it around the next day has been fairly remarkable. That’ll be my standard and expectation.”
Brandon Pfaadt dominates Giants
Pfaadt deserved to earn a win on Wednesday, pitching nine innings for the first time in his career. The last Diamondbacks starter to complete nine innings was Zac Gallen at Wrigley Field in September 2023. Before Gallen, it was Tyler Gilbert’s no-hitter in 2021.
Pfaadt started his outing with 5.1 no-hit frames, and he finished the day with one hit allowed, one walk and seven strikeouts.
He did so with 97 total pitches, which would have given him a Maddux.
Pfaadt said he looked up at the scoreboard in the middle innings and noticed the Giants were hitless, but he still felt it was early in the game. Third baseman Blaze Alexander noticed in the sixth inning and was ready to see something special.
Drew Gilbert broke up the no-hitter with a one-out single in the sixth. It was the first hit from San Francisco since the third inning of Tuesday’s 6-5 Diamondbacks win.
The hit was erased by a double play, so Pfaadt only needed to strand one base runner all game. His home ERA this season dropped to 3.15.
“ I just want to shout out (James) McCann back there,” Pfaadt said. “A lot of that credit goes to him. He had me dialed in all day and he was calling all the pitches back there, so I just had to execute it. Mostly everything was working today and we were able to get ahead, get some crucial double plays.”
The issue was Pfaadt found himself in a pitcher’s duel with future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander.
Verlander shut out the Diamondbacks through seven innings with only three hits allowed, including an infield single. The 42-year-old has given up three total runs over his last five starts, and while the Diamondbacks made him work with long at-bats, they found few answers to break him. Lots of pop-ups gave a break to the ailing San Francisco defense, as well.
“We had some Hells Bells playing on the speakers (pregame), we freaking were ready to go,” Alexander said. “Pfaadt was definitely ready to go. We gotta find a way to score for him and we didn’t. … We’ll be ready to go Friday.”
The game was on pace to finish in around two hours before extra innings.
The Diamondbacks finally built an inning in the ninth inning off Ryan Walker, starting with a Carroll triple with one out. Gabriel Moreno walked and Blaze Alexander was hit by a pitch. These were the same three base runners aboard when Jordan Lawlar hit a walk-off single off of Walker on Tuesday.
Pinch hitter Adrian Del Castillo struck out, however, and Alek Thomas rolled out.
Brandyn Garcia backed up Pfaadt by stranding the ghost runner in the 10th inning, striking out Willy Adames and Matt Chapman, but the Diamondbacks’ struggles to score the Manfred Man in the 10th inning persisted. They entered Wednesday hitting .215 in extra innings as a team.
Arizona is 7-11 in extra-inning games this season.
“It was unfortunate that we couldn’t get a win, but we’re playing good baseball,” Pfaadt said. “A series victory over the Giants at this point in the season is awesome, and hopefully we can keep it rolling.”
Up next for Diamondbacks
The Diamondbacks get Thursday off before welcoming the NL East champion Philadelphia Phillies to Chase Field on Friday.
Ryne Nelson will start the opener for Arizona, which has nine games remaining this season.
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Comments
21 Comments
I hope every one of his team mates sincerely apologizes to Pfaadt. The guy pitched his heart out (9 scoreless innings); bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th with one out and Carroll on 3rd - bupkiss; bottom of the 10th, runner on 3rd (Thomas) with one out - bupkiss again. Two chances to walk it off and they did nuthin'.
This wasn't a bull pen collapse, this was the offense failing to produce. Between the ninth and tenth innings they sent six batter's to the plate with a runner at third and got zilch out of it.
Ketel needs to take another mental health day or three. Over the last month he has produced absolutely jack shat.
Congrats to Pfaadt for pitching 9 innings and giving up one hit. I have been hard on Pfaadt since his ERA for the whole season before this game was over 5.00. The game that Pfaadt pitched today is what we should expect one game a week from the Dbacks pitchers with the other games where the starting pitchers have game ERAs under 3.00.
Mr. Weiner: Stop this nonsense of only listing his Chase Field ERA. Are you saying that only performing in 50% of your games is okay? In the real world, if you only do 50% of your job, you will be fired. Or are you saying that the Dbacks should only pay half of Pfaadt contract since he can't pitch on the road? Or are you saying that the Dback should have 6 starters for 2026...2 of the starters, one will pitch on the road and Pfaadt will pitch at Chase Field.