Brandon Pfaadt and D-backs Fall Flat in Yankee Stadium

Prior to tonight's game Torey Lovullo said his team was unfazed coming into Yankee stadium and were ready for the challenge. They were anything but. Brandon Pfaadt had another blow up game, allowing two of Aaron Judge's three homers. The defense was shaky, and the bats were completely shut down by non other than Luke Weaver.

Pfaadt looked sharp through the first two innings despite giving up a double in the gap to Judge in the first inning. He struck out the side in the second and seemed to be on his way to a second straight good outing. He gave up a single to the number eight hitter to start the third however and then committed an error bobbling a sure double play ball to put runners on first and second with nobody out. Pfaadt got another strikeout, but then Judge launched a line drive missile 420 feet away into the back of the D-backs bullpen in right center. The pitch was a sinker right at the bottom of the zone that Judge just muscled out.

Pfaadt expressed frustration with the missed double play chance in which he tried to throw the ball before he caught it. "The one thing that kills me is probably the double play turn, and then the homer followed. I think that limiting that inning would have been huge for the momentum going forward. I think that would have helped us score more runs and get moment in our favor"

Despite knowing that Judge was the most likely hitter to hurt the D-backs, they pitched to Judge when walking him might have been the lesser evil. Lovullo insisted they had a good game plan, but Pfaadt just didn't execute. "I respect him, he's a great player but I thought at that point in the game we were in a good spot and we would make some good pitches and we could get him out and we just couldn't do it."

Judge got to Pfaadt again in the 5th inning. Back to back doubles had already stretched the Yankee lead to 4-0 and with first base open Torey Lovullo elected to let Pfaadt pitch to Judge again. With the count 1-2 Pfaadt made a mistake leaving a sinker over the heart of the plate. Once again the Yankees superstar launched a homer right center, ballooning the Yankee lead to 6-0.

Asked if he ever considered walking Judge prior to the second homer with first base open Lovullo said he did not. "We thought about different options, we had a good game plan. We just didn't execute, he should not have gotten some extension in that situation." Pfaadt echoed a similar sentiment when he said "We were trying to go up, show him something different. He's a big dude, so we gotta go up up and we didn't do that."

Perhaps the game plan did not take into account that Pfaadt has struggled with pitch location all year. The homers he allowed today drove his total up to 22 for the year in just 90 innings. Leaving hittable pitches in bad location has been a constant theme. To take the risk against the best power hitter in the game seemed questionable at best. Judge now has 35 homers in just 100 games played. It was his second three homer game of the year.

Pfaadt's final line was 4.1 IP, 8 hits, 6 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 2 HR. Six of the 8 hits were for extra bases as his ERA rose back up to 6.08 and his record fell to 2-9

Meanwhile former Diamondback Weaver, pitching for his third team this season, threw 5.1 innings giving up just four singles and zero runs. He allowed some hard contact that were turned into outs, including a line drive and fly ball both over 100 MPH by Christian Walker that were turned into outs. The D-backs threatened with two of the singles off Weaver coming in the sixth inning with one out, but Aaron Boone went to his bullpen to get Jhony Brito who shut down the threat. Weaver didn't walk a batter as the D-backs were aggressive early in counts to no avail. Continuing his hard contact, Walker hit his 31st homer of the year in the top of the 9th for the lone D-backs run.

A scary moment occurred in the bottom of the 7th. Corbin Carroll and Jace Peterson converged on a popup on the left field line. Carroll went to his knees to avoid the collision and the turf gave way causing him to tumble head over heels just as Peterson attempted to make the catch. The ball fell in but Peterson threw the runner out at 3rd. A shaken Carroll got up slowly but stayed in the game.

"It was weird, I've never seen a field like that. It was going into sand , it was like my knee was all the way into the ground and I tumbled" Fortunately he said that he felt pretty good and expects to feel good tomorrow.

Tommy Pham left the game in the bottom of the 7th with right big toe irritation. He is day-to-day, but Lovullo also said he was likely to be in the lineup tomorrow.

Game two of the series is schedule for tomorrow at 1:05 EST, 10:05 MST. A rain delay seems likely due to Tropical Storm Ophelia moving up the east coast however so stay tuned for updates. Zach Davies is scheduled to start for Arizona against Carlos Rodón for the Yankees.

In a switch up of news from the pregame press conference, Zac Gallen will start on this Sunday and then next Friday against Houston, with Merrill Kelly following him. Tune in below for the SoundCloud audio for Lovullo and Pfaadt's full post game comments.