Tommy Pham Stars in Return to New York

The Diamondbacks came from behind to beat the New York Mets 4-3 with former Met Tommy Pham being the catalyst. Pham was acquired by the Diamondback at the trade deadline and has been a fixture in the middle of the order, delivering numerous big hits already.

Pham spoke about looking to homer prior to the game and had already doubled and scored the D-backs first run in a two-run fourth against Mets starter Jose Quintana. Pham also singled in the fifth inning. With the D-backs trailing 3-2 in the 8th inning, Pham drilled his 16th homer of the year over the center field wall to tie the game. The pitch was an 88 MPH cutter from Trevor Gott that stayed over the middle of the plate. Describing the at bat Pham simply said "Home run pitches are usually thrown. He left me a pitch out over the plate, and I was just on time and I had a great result."

Pham didn't entertain any thoughts of revenge over the Mets for trading him. "Right now we're just trying to win ballgames. This is my former team. It's a great group over there, but at the end of the day we're trying to make it to the postseason".

Pham also had a defensive highlight tonight, throwing out Jeff McNeil at second base trying to stretch a single into a double. The two former teammates had a brief exchange, with Pham joking "Thanks for getting my defensive runs saved up".

Alek Thomas came off the bench in the 9th to start a one out rally with a single against Mets reliever Drew Smith. Ketel Marte followed with an excuse me swing double down the left field line that rattled around in the corner, allowing Thomas to come all the way around with the go ahead and winning run.

Zach Davies started tonight and held the Mets scoreless through the first three innings, and looked in control. It all went south in the fourth inning however. After striking out Francisco Lindor, McNeil hit a solo homer for the first Mets run. Davies then lost the strike zone walking the next two batters before giving up a two-run double to Ronny Mauricio on an 0-2 pitch down and away. It wasn't a bad pitch, but the two walks were the issue. Davies issued one more walk but then got out of the inning with a ground out and strike out. That ended his day as Torey Lovullo went to the bullpen. His final line was 4 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3BB, 5K, 1 HR. Davies threw 78 pitches, 46 for strikes.

The bullpen took over from there to throw five scoreless innings. Kyle Nelson recorded two scoreless innings, with Luis Frias and Kevin Ginkel delivering one each. Frias has been improving, and Ginkel has been lights out most of the season, and clearly been the best Diamondbacks reliever of 2023.

Paul Sewald came on for the save attempt in the 9th. It was once again a white knuckle affair. Sewald walked Mauricio to start the inning. That's the 9th time in 16 games he's allowed the first batter faced to reach base, five via hit, four by walk. A sac bunt and a stolen base had Mauricio at third base with only one out. Sewald got a big strikeout of Daniel Vogelbach on a called strike three that just nipped the top corner of the strike zone. Sewald issued one more walk before finally getting Brandon Nimmo to fly out to shallow center. It was a 23 pitch inning with just 12 pitches for strikes. Ginkel picked up his 9th win, to go 9-0 on the season. Sewald got his 33rd save, and 12th as a D-back in 14 chances.

Asked how his heartbeat was during some of these difficult save conversions from Sewald, Lovullo gave a nervous laugh and said "How's yours? Probably the same. I mean we're all the same. I'm a human being just the same way as everybody else, I just happen to be the manager of the D-backs. But I feel the same emotion that everybody else does sitting in their living room."

Lovullo went on to express confidence and trust in his closer. "It's not easy to do what he did. The man at third base and one out, he struck out a hitter that's been in the big leagues a long time and made quality pitches. That's just who he is. Look, there are a few things we've got to tighten up, and I know he will. But he got a big save "

Tonight's highlight reel includes some big defensive plays. Enjoy

Great defense, great relief pitching, and a big night from Tommy Pham key Diamondbacks come from behind 4-3 win over Mets https://t.co/Cm0uSMbrS5 #MLBFilmRoom via @MLB
— Jack Sommers (@shoewizard59) September 12, 2023

With the win the D-backs move to 76-69 and extend their lead over the Marlins for the third wild card spot to 1.5 games. The Cubs won, so Arizona remains 2.0 games back of Chicago. The Giants have won three in a row and are not going away yet. They're just 2.0 games back of the D-backs.

Game two of the series is tomorrow night at Citi Field, 4:10 MST first pitch. Ryne Nelson starts for Arizona and Jose Butto is going for New York.