Brandon Pfaadt Recovers From First Inning Wildness
The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Diamondbacks 6-5 in a spring training game at Goodyear tonight. Kyle Lewis doubled to lead off the game for the D-backs. One out later Seth Beer took a 3-2 fastball away from left hander Nick Lodolo for a two-run homer, staking Brandon Pfaadt to a 2-0 lead. Beer homering off a lefty was welcome news for the D-backs.
Pfaadt failing to protect the lead was not. Struggling with control he issued back to back four pitch walks in the bottom of the first inning. That was followed by an RBI single from Jose Barrero and a two run triple by Elly De La Cruz, a line shot that bounced off the batter’s eye in centerfield.
With his pitch count climbing Pfaadt was removed from the inning, replaced by Brent Teller. Teller gave up a walk and a homer, resulting in four of the six runs in the inning being charged to Pfaadt. In a spring oddity, Pfaadt came back out to retire the side in order in both the second and third innings however, getting two strikeouts in the process. He started the 4th inning getting a fly out to deep center that Jake McCarthy nearly misplayed before recovering. One base hit later and his night was done, having gotten in his four "up downs". Pfaadts final line was 3 IP, 3H, 4ER, 2BB, 2K
After his outing Pfaadt spoke about recovering to retire 7 of the last 8 batters he faced
"Obviously, I don’t want to come out of the gate like that walking two people, that’s never the plan. I felt like how we bounced back, I’ll take it........ I could have stayed right there and kept giving up runs, keep falling behind, but I think it’s a telltale [sign] when you have an inning like that what happens afterwards. Torey [Lovullo] said “you have 30 pitches left, what are you going to do with them"
Pfaadt also said locating his curveballs and sliders from the second inning on, thus setting up his fastball, was the key to his recovery. Whether or not the shaky first innings negatively impacts Pfaadts chances to win the fifth starters spot in the rotation remains to be seen. All of the four primary candidates have been up and down this spring.
Geraldo Perdomo singled in the second inning, then walked and stole a base in the fourth inning. He came around to score on a Jake Hager double, getting the D-backs to within 6-3. Perdomo walked a second time in the top of the fifth. He's hitting .278 and has drawn six walks, giving him an excellent .435 OBP in 23 spring plate appearances. He's scored five runs in eight games. Getting on base at the bottom of the lineup, setting the table for the top is exactly what the team is looking for from Perdomo this year.
Kevin Ginkel, Mark Melancon, Kyle Nelson, and Peter Solomon combined for 4.2 scoreless innings in relief, as the Reds did not score after the first inning.
The Diamondbacks reserves took advantage of walks in the seventh inning to score two runs, but that was all, making the final score 6-5
A side note regarding Corbin Carroll: After the game Torey Lovullo said that Carroll was a healthy scratch from the lineup and he just decided to do something different.
Arizona will face the Angels tomorrow in Tempe, with Zach Davies getting the start. Game time is 1:10 P.M. and it will be televised on Bally Sports Arizona and 98.7 F.M.
