Brandon Pfaadt was taking the mound for the Diamondbacks in the second game of this increasingly crucial series against the New York Yankees. He and the Snakes were going up against Cam Schlittler, the presumptive American League Cy Young Award winner for this season. We got utterly hosed last night by the Yankees last night, after dropping two of three to the Marlins, while the damned Padres just keep on winning. I’d forgive you if you didn’t have us winning this one on your bingo card tonight, because I certainly didn’t. If you were to claim, though, that not only did you have us winning, but you had us winning on a Pavin Smith pinch-hit walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth? You would be lying. Pure and simple.
And yet, happily and hilariously, here we are!
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The game started late, due to a truly lovely celebration on the field of the 25th anniversary of the Diamondbacks’ World Series victory over the New York Yankees, who happened to be our opponents tonight. A ton of players from the 2001 club attended and appeared on the field. Bob Brenly came down from the broadcast booth to throw out the first pitch, which he bounced to 2001 Diamondbacks catcher Damian Miller, who in a cool side note was reunited with one of his old catcher’s mitts from back in the day, that some equipment guy had found in a box somewhere. It was pretty cool, all of it. There was some hope, at least in the early remarks in the Gameday Thread, that the invocation and evocation of the 2001 team would inspire their 2026 counterparts to rise to the occasion tonight.
It didn’t look great in terms of that in the early going. Schlittler was tough, no-hitting us through four frames with his only blemish being a four-pitch walk to Corbin Carroll in the bottom of the second that led to nothing. Brandon Pfaadt, meanwhile, matched him through his first two innings of work before getting a little wobbly in the third with a one-out walk and a subsequent single that seemed like they might be harbingers of another One Big Inning, though thankfully he managed to settle down and put up a zero.
Brandon retired the side in order in the fourth, but opened the fifth with back-to-back singles, a really good bunt that catcher Gabriel Moreno made a fantastic play on to cut down the lead runner at third, and then a third single to load the bases. Somewhat surprisingly, manager Torey Lovullo decided that he’d seen enough, and pulled Pfaadt at that point, and it was likely very good that he did. Justin Martinez relieved him, and quickly recorded the final two outs on fly balls to left, the first of which allowed the runner on third to tag and score. But it could have been a whole lot worse. 1-0 New York
Unlike what we’ve seen a lot of recently, the Diamondbacks actually answered right back in the bottom of the fifth. Nolan Arenado broke up Schlittler’s no-hitter by lining a one-out single to left. Tim Tawa tried to bunt Arenado to second, but wound up on first base thanks to Schlittler booting it for an error. That brought Jordan Lawlar to the plate, who promptly lined a triple into the alley in left-center:
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That scored Arenado and Tawa, to give us a lead! 2-1 DBACKS
The lead, sadly, turned out to be short-lived, as Kevin Ginkel took the mound for the top of the sixth and further cemented his status as the weak link in the Diamondbacks’ September “A” bullpen. He got the first out easily, but then gave up a solo shot to Heliot Ramos. He then got the second out, and then gave up a solo shot to Austin Wells. So that was no bueno. 3-2 New York
Apparently, however, we had decided we weren’t going to go gentle into that good night this evening, which was nice to see. Schlittler helped out, walking Ketel Marte and Gabriel Moreno on eight pitches total to start the bottom of the sixth. Geraldo Perdomo laid down a bunt on the left side of the infield that he managed to beat out for a single to load the bases with nobody out. Corbin Carroll then hit a sacrifice fly to deep left that allowed Marte to score and the other runners to advance. Moreno and Perdomo were left standing on second and third, sadly, as Arenado and Tawa each struck out, but at least we weren’t trailing anymore. 3-3 TIE
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And then it was fully onto the bullpen for both teams. Brandyn Garcia pitched a scoreless seventh for us, and recorded two outs in the eighth before giving way to Juan Morillo, who recorded the final out and then pitched a scoreless top of the ninth. The Yankees, meanwhile, trotted out a succession of bullpen arms who all apparently have ERAs below 2.00, which was annoying. Despite that, we got a leadoff single from pinch-hitter Ildemaro Vargas to lead off the seventh (but he was stranded), and a leadoff single from Gabi and a two-out single from Arenado in the eighth (but both of them were left stranded).
Which brings us to the bottom of the ninth. Vargas, taking his second plate appearance, drew an eight-pitch walk off Michael Fulmer. Jordan Lawlar then struck out swinging. That brought Pavin Smith to the plate, pinch-hitting for Jose Fernandez, who’d come on to pinch-hit for Lars Nootbaar in the seventh. And here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for, that we’ve all been waiting for, even if we didn’t know it until the moment it happened:
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Maybe there was a little bit of Luis Gonzalez 2001 magic that Pavin soaked up during the pregame celebration? Could be. Who knows? Whatever works! 3-2 DBACKS FINAL
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Win Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs
Aces: Pavin Smith (1 AB, 1 H, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR, +36% WPA)
Kings: Brandyn Garcia (1 2/3 IP, 0 R, +17% WPA), Juan Morillo (1 1/3 IP, 0 R, +17% WPA), Gabriel Moreno (3 AB, 1 H, 1 BB, +13% WPA), Ildemaro Vargas (1 AB, 1 H, 1 R, 1 BB, +13% WPA)
Deuces: Kevin Ginkel (1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 HR, -26% WPA), Tim Tawa (3 AB, 1 R, 2 K, -15% WPA)
Given how things have been going lately, especially on Saturdays and especially given that an increasing number of “Turn out the lights” type posts have been cropping up on the Feed, I would say that tonight’s Gameday Thread was pretty well-attended, with 195 comments at time of writing. By popular acclaim Comment of the Game goes to Trappkory, for this possibly broken-clock pronouncement which I can nevertheless confirm was posted just before the big moment in the bottom of the ninth:
As I noted in the thread, you called it! Well done!
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And once again, we head into Sunday looking for a win to take the series. An increasingly recovered Corbin Burnes goes for us, Will Warren goes for the Yankees, first pitch is scheduled for 1:10pm AZ time. It’s the last home game of the regular season, and TheRealRamona has the guest recap, so I hope you can join us as we once more try to stave off elimination and chart a path to a postseason berth!
The Padres and Cubs won today, but the Phillies lost, and given the odd fact that the day started with all three current NL wild card teams tied, it means that we didn’t lose any ground, and we in fact gained a game on one of those teams! Remember, you don’t need to outrun the cheetah, you just need to outrun at least one other person who is fleeing from the cheetah. And oddly enough, in a weird sort of way, we are now the cheetah. So go cats! And Snakes!
As always, thanks so much for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!
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