Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #129: 8/25 vs. Reds

The Brandon Pfaadt Quest for his first W continues, making its 13th stop tonight at Chase Field. Last time out, he pitched seven scoreless innings of one-hit ball against a very well-paid (if not perhaps well-performing) Padres roster, resulting in a Game Score of 77, the best of his career. However, the offense couldn’t even muster a single run for Pfaadt, and Miguel Castro took care of the rest (for some loose definition of “took care of”...). There was nothing new there. Brandon’s previous high Game Score was 75, on August 2nd in San Francisco, where he held the Giants to two hits over seven innings. Unfortunately, one of those left the yard, and Pfaadt ended up on the hook for the 1-0 loss that resulted.

[Not-so fun fact. The D-backs have a problem in 1-0 games. They’re a dismal 23-43 there in franchise history. That includes five losses in a row since their last 1-0 win, a walk-off over the Padres, all the way back in the last game of 2019]

So, the two best starts of Pfaadt’s career have seen a total of ZERO runs in support of him. The average is a mere 3.26 per 27 outs - and even that is skewed heavily by the inclusion of the 12-7 win over the Rangers in Texas. In seven of his dozen starts, the Diamondbacks have scored two or fewer runs. The odd thing is, while Pfaadt may be winless in 12 attempts, Arizona has a quite respectable 5-7 record when he takes the mound. Although four of those five victories were one-run squeakers, the exception being the Texas game mentioned above. On the other hand, when there’s been a loss, it has gone to Pfaadt six out of the seven times, Castro’s meltdown being the other game.

Never mind to start a career, where Pfaadt is easily #1 among D-backs, he’s climbing up the list of all-time winless streaks by an Arizona starter, and is in the top ten. For now though, two of his current team-mates stand ahead of Brandon. Zac Gallen went 13 starts in 2021 without tasting victory, and the franchise record belong to Zach Davies, whom we’ll see returning from the IL in tomorrow’s game. He went more than a year winless after May 13 last season, finally breaking his streak after going 0-5 with 19 no-decisions, on June 7 this year. That’s still his only victory in the last 32 attempts - basically an entire season. Let’s hope Pfaadt - and the offense - take care of business tonight, and get that monkey put down.