Diamondbacks 9, FTD 2: Greetings from Chez Tawa?

After a somewhat surprising (and surprisingly emphatic) win against the Doyers last night in their house thanks in large measure to Tim Tawa busting out, it seemed honestly pretty unlikely to me that we’d knock them off again, especially with Yoshinobu Yamamoto taking the mound for them and Brandon Pfaadt going for us. Don’t get me wrong, it has seemed like Pfaadt definitely worked some things out during his brief time in Reno, but his two very good starts since he’s been back have been against the Giants and the Padres, neither of whom are exactly poster children for “fierce and difficult competition” at this point in the season. The Dodgers, on the other hand, sport the best record in baseball, and Yamamoto has definitely earned his spot on the All-Star Game roster for the National League this year. So. My expectations were not high, is what I’m saying.

But you know what? I was completely wrong! Hooray! It didn’t look great to start, as Yamamoto made very short work of the top of our lineup in the first, sitting down Ketel Marte, Geraldo Perdomo, and Corbin Carroll, with only ten pitches thrown. But Pfaadt came out for the bottom of the first, and only needed five pitches to retire Shohei Ohtani, Andy Pages, and Freddie Freeman. Not too shabby.

And it pretty much continued that way through five innings—Brandon Pfaadt outpitching and outperforming the 2025 World Series MVP. Our hitters started hanging longer and more patient at bats on Yamamoto, the Dodgers hitters failed to do so with Pfaadt. Tim Tawa got the Diamondbacks’ first hit with two outs in the second with a fly ball single to center. Sadly, however, he was immediately picked off first base before Yamamoto had to throw another pitch, which was embarrassing. It broke the seal, though, at least, and we started driving Yamamoto’s pitch count up from there, with James McCann reaching on the Max Muncy throwing error with one out in the top of the third and Tommy Troy drawing a six-pitch walk. Nothing more came of that, sadly, as Marte popped out to third, and Perdomo flew out to left after a long at bat, but we made Yamamoto throw 25 pitches in the inning. Pfaadt, on the other hand, cruised through the second and third innings, retiring the Dodgers in order as he completed his first run through their lineup with only 27 pitched needed to record his first nine outs.

The Diamondbacks drew first blood as well in the top of the fourth, after Gabriel Moreno drew a six-pitch walk with one out and then got to third on a Max Kepler grounder that snuck through the right side of the infield and into right field for a single. Tim Tawa then hit a grounder to third that Max Muncy frankly made an amazing play on, but Moreno was running on contact and Muncy’s only play was to throw to first, where he just nabbed Tawa while Gabi crossed the plate for the first run of the game. 1-0 DBACKS

Pfaadt got himself into some trouble in the bottom half of the inning, as Ohtani lined a single to left and Andy Pages hit a ground ball that got between Perdomo and Nolan Arenado for another single. Freddie Freeman then hit a slow roller to Perdomo, and while he and Marte tried to turn two, they were only able to get the force on Pages at second, putting runners on the corners with only one out. But where early 2026 Brandon Pfaadt would have started nibbling and melted down to give up a big inning, July Pfaadt buckled down, induced Mookie Betts to pop out to second and then got Muncy to ground out to put up another zero and preserve the lead.

Both pitchers seemed to regain their composure a little bit in the fifth, with both Yamamoto and Pfaadt retiring their respective sides in order. Tommy Troy fouled a pitch off his knee in the top of the frame, and then had to leave the game (with Jorge Barrosa taking his place) in the bottom when he plowed into the wall in center field making a play on a long fly ball by Teoscar Hernandez. So that wasn’t great, but no damage was done, score-wise, at least.

And then the sixth inning happened.

Yamamoto came out to start the sixth with his pitch count sitting at 76 pitches thrown. He promptly walked Perdomo on four pitches, which was nice, and then struck out Carroll on four pitches, which was less nice. Moreno singled to right, advancing Gerry to third, and a Max Kepler sacrifice fly to deep center allowed Perdomo to score the second run of the ballgame. That brought Tawa to the plate again, and Tawa bounced a ball up the third base line for a double that, despite third base coach JR House putting up the stop sign, scored Gabi from third.

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You can’t see it in the clip, but what I think I loved most about this play was that not only did Gabi run through the stop sign, he almost bowled over House himself as he was turning the corner around third and heading home. So that was kind of hilarious. Dave Roberts, meanwhile, apparently really wanted Yamamoto to get through the sixth inning, because he had him intentionally walk Nolan Arenado to get to James McCann, who one might have supposed would be the easier out. This turned out not to be the case, however, as McCann hammered the second pitch he saw in the at bat up and out and over the wall in left for a three-run dinger:

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Barrosa flew out to left, at long last, for the third out of the inning, but we’d secured Brandon Pfaadt’s lead. 6-0 DBACKS

It turned out to be a good thing, too, as it turned out that Pfaadt didn’t have a whole lot left in the tank. He’d gotten through five innings of Dodgers with only 59 pitches thrown, but the wheels came off for him in the bottom of the sixth. Tommy Edman led off the inning with a line-drive double to right, and after recording a one-pitch out to Ohtani, Brandon surrendered three straight singles to Pages, Freeman, and Betts. Edman and Pages scored, and Pfaadt’s night was abruptly over, as Torey Lovullo pulled him for Brandyn Garcia, who was making his second relief appearance in as many days. Garcia did the business, though, striking out Max Muncy looking and getting Kyle Tucker to line out to Perdomo for the third out. 6-2 DBACKS

Landon Knack, activated today from the 60-day injured list to give Los Angeles some length after they used nearly their entire bullpen last night, came on for the top of the seventh, and promptly gave back one of the runs by loading the bases with one out. He hit Perdomo with a pitch, then walked Carroll and Perdomo. Max Kepler flew out to right, allowing Perdomo to tag from third and score. 7-2 DBACKS

Kevin Ginkel pitched a clean bottom of the seventh for us, and Knack came out for the eighth and was greeted by back-to-back solo home runs from Nolan Arenado and James McCann, who went deep for the second time in the game.

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So that was fun. 9-2 DBACKS

And that accounts for our final score, as Juan Morillo put up a zero in the eighth and Philip Abner, recently recalled from Reno, put up a zero of his own in the bottom of the ninth.

Win Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs

BINGO!: Brandon Pfaadt (5 1/3 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, +19% WPA)
Bango: Tim Tawa (5 AB, 3 H, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 2B, 1 K, +13% WPA), James McCann (4 AB, 2 H, 2 R, 4 RBI, 2 HR, 1 K, +12% WPA), Max Kepler (3 AB, 1 H, 2 RBI, 1 K, +10% WPA)
Bongo: Ketel Marte (5 AB, 0 H, 0 R, 2 K, -9% WPA)

This was kind of an interesting WPA sheet, and frankly an interesting game for the offense, as all of the meaningful offensive production came from the bottom six players in the lineup. Go figure. And Tawa, for the second game in a row, was the WPA leader for the offense—+13% today, and a whopping +23% yesterday. It’s certainly a small sample size, but I begin to wonder if, when he was called back up from Reno this last time, Timmy reached out to Christian Walker and arranged to sublet Dodger Stadium from the hand-downs historical owner of that ballpark. Could be.

Anyway, we had a lovely and lively Gameday Thread tonight, with 315 comments at time of writing. Comment of the Game, by popular acclaim and because they are certainly not wrong, goes to Webb Gemz for this observation regarding our new heir apparent at first base:

Of course, given the propensity of fans a Chavez Latrine to bat beach balls around in the stands, that could also be an explanation for the phenomenon. We’ll have to see if Timmy continues to see pitches that way once we’re back at Chase. Here’s hoping, though.

And I did not expect to be typing this sentence, but stop by with your brooms in hand tomorrow as we go for the sweep against the Doyers tomorrow in the last game of our last series before the All Star Break! Mitch Bratt takes the mound for us, replacing the apparently destined-for-the-IL Zac Gallen, while Emmet Sheehan goes for the Evil Floral Delivery Conglomerate. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10pm AZ time. Hope to see you, because if we don’t, that can only mean that you are simply the worst kind of Frankfurter (i dunno, blame Trappkory)!

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!

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