#1 – Brandon Pfaadt Struggles Early, Shows Some Signs of 2023 HR Issues

4/12/24: Cardinals – 9 / Diamondbacks – 6

Ever since the 2023 playoffs began, Brandon Pfaadt has been an entirely different pitcher than when he was first called up at the beginning of the season. Yet the one issue that always seemed to show up for Brandon would be how often opposing hitters are taking him out of the ballpark. In 2023 Pfaadt gave up 22 Home Runs across just 96 IP, which averaged out to around 2 HR per outing which just isn’t sustainable for a Major League starting pitcher.

Going into Friday night’s start, Pfaadt had only 2 starts on the year with only 1 HR allowed (Ozuna from the Braves) but the Cardinals did not let him get comfortable whatsoever as he was jumped on early by notorious Diamondback killer Nolan Arenado (.303 Avg, 164 H, 32 HR, 110 RBI and 9 R in 140 career games against AZ). He took a Brandon Pfaadt sweeper that got a bit too much off the plate 424 feet deep to left center. 2 innings later, Lars Nootbar decided to one-up Arenado and took a Pfaadt fastball 438 feet into the right field bleachers.

One big difference between 2023 Pfaadt and 2024 Pfaadt is that on Friday night, he didn’t let the game snowball out of control after giving up 6 in 3 IP. Following the Noot bomb with only 1 out in the third, Pfaadt set down the next 11 hitters with only 1 single that was immediately erased on a double play. It might seem like nothing, especially since the Dbacks eventually lost 9-6 after some more bullpen struggles, but Pfaadt being able to settle in and go 6 innings gave the team a fighting chance.

#2 – Ryne Nelson Exercises His Chase Field Demons for the Night

4/13/24: Dbacks – 4 / Cardinals – 2

Ryne Nelson’s career at Chase Field as a starting pitcher has been a rough one to say the least (16 G, 7.49 ERA in 69.2 IP before Saturday night’s game), but Saturday night was a much different story. It wasn’t a smooth ride from start to finish, especially when Ryne got into a jam with runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs, and then a bases loaded situation with 2 outs. Both scenarios happened in the 6th inning. When Ryne got Jordan Walker to strikeout swinging on 3 straight fastballs (2 cutters and 1 4-seam), he walked off that mound with a fire and energy that showed “he’s got the minerals”, as Diamondbacks play-by-play announcer Steve Berthiaume so elegantly put it.

That kind of high-wire walking is something that in the past would have burned Ryne, but he stayed composed. Getting out of that jam provided a huge momentum swing that the offense rode to a 3-run inning on Lourdes Gurriel Jr’s 3-run HR, which proved to be the difference maker in the game.

Ryne still had to rely heavily on his fastball (43 of his 81 total pitches were 4-seamers), and again couldn’t seem to generate any swing and miss on his secondary stuff, but to me, that makes what Ryne did even more of a reason to point it out. Good pitchers still get hitters out even when they don’t have their best swing-and-miss stuff, and Ryne did just that against the Cardinals on Saturday night.

#3 – Bryce is Nice

4/14/24: Dbacks – 5 / Cardinals – 0

Heading into Spring training 2024, Bryce Jarvis was in the competition for the 5th starting pitcher spot in the rotation, but due to the log jam the Dbacks have, he wasn’t able to beat Ryne Nelson or Tommy Henry for that spot. Luckily for Bryce Jarvis, the Dbacks had a need in the bullpen for a long relief pitcher and he seems to be settling into that role very nicely.

Jarvis last pitched Wednesday 4/10 against the Rockies and went 2.2 IP with 1 H, 1 BB, and 1 K on 44 pitches (29 for strikes), which the gassed Dbacks bullpen desperately needed. Bryce must have kept whatever he was doing in Colorado and repeated it against the Cardinals because he once again ate up some key innings to save their high-leverage arms from having to get thrown into a late save situation, which should keep them fresh going into the next series versus the Cubs.

In 4 of Bryce’s outings this month he’s put up a scoreless outing in 3 of them, with the 1 he didn’t being the series in Atlanta (no bullpen arm seemed to be able to get an out that series). Considering the struggles we have had late in games so far this year, if Bryce can keep this kind of performance up there is a good chance he could find himself in more high-leverage situations as the year progresses.

When Jordan Montgomery joins the team on Friday in San Francisco, either Ryne Nelson or Tommy Henry will most likely be moved to the bullpen. When that happens, Bryce Jarvis might just find himself getting a promotion from long relief to a more high-leverage arm that Torey Lovullo and even us fans can trust when he gets handed the ball.