Torey Lovullo says Brandon Pfaadt attacking hitters is allowing him to thrive

Brandon Pfaadt has lowered his ERA in all eight starts since rejoining the Arizona Diamondbacks from Triple-A Reno, and manager Torey Lovullo isn’t surprised.

“Since he’s come back, he’s absolutely filling up the zone with a (four-seam) fastball (up), a two-seamer, a cutter and then ripping breaking balls,” Lovullo told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta Monday. “He’s got a great presence. He’s like, ‘Give me the baseball. You’re out.’ That’s part of being a good pitcher, standing on the mound, getting that baseball in the hand and saying, ‘You’re out.’

“That’s the feeling that he gives me every time he’s on the mound.”

Pfaadt returned to the Diamondbacks on June 30 against the San Francisco Giants with a 5.92 ERA. Eight starts later, he’s delivered four straight quality starts, hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in an outing, has walked seven total batters and has lowered his ERA to 3.36.

The starter’s last eight outings in order:

• June 30 vs. Giants: 5.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1BB, 2 SO, ERA 5.40
• July 6 at Padres: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO, ERA 4.84
• July 11 at Dodgers: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, ERA 4.70
• July 18 vs. Cardinals: 5.1 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, ERA 4.58
• July 23 at Cardinals: 6 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO, ERA 4.43
• July 28 at Pirates: 7 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO, ERA 4.00
• Aug. 3 vs. Padres: 6.2 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO, ERA 3.66
• Aug. 8 vs. Dodgers: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO, ERA 3.36

“He wants to be great,” Lovullo said. “He’ll go out there every single night with whatever he has, and he’s just going to punch tickets and fill up the zone.”

After Pfaadt’s struggles to start the season, the move to the bullpen was not what the 27-year-old wanted, but he accepted it.

“He’s so quiet and so humble. When he was put into the bullpen into this little bit of a mini rotation … he accepted it, but it just wasn’t his jam,” Lovullo said. “It wasn’t what he liked to do. So he was out of rhythm, but he was trying to figure out a new model for how he could go out there and be successful, and it wasn’t working.”

So the trip to Reno ensued, and that’s where Pfaadt made some mechanical changes to his delivery and got back to attacking hitters.

Once he found success with that, the confidence came back and that, both catchers James McCann and Gabriel Moreno said, makes the biggest difference.

Since the All-Star break, Pfaadt has a 1.09 ERA (four earned runs across 33 innings), which would be tied for the National League lead (Shota Imanaga, 1.09 ERA) and second in MLB (Drew Rasmussen, 0.72 ERA).

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