First off, let me say that, despite Zac Gallen’s putative “aceness” for the team, the true top of our rotation for the last several months has been tonight’s starter, Brandon Pfaadt. He’s been the one giving us the length—6+ innings in 16 of his 21 starts this year, no more than 1 earned run allowed in his last four starts, and so forth. He took the mound tonight against another promising Pirates starter, lefty Marco Gonzales, who came into the game with a 2.70 ERA, though with a small sample size of five starts before tonight.

Brandon struck out Andrew McCutchen to start the ballgame, but Pittsburgh shortstop Oneil Cruz punished the first pitch he saw from Pfaadt, hitting a 472-foot moonshot onto the concourse above the right field bleachers. Last year, Pfaadt would have likely been rattled, but not today. He shrugged it off and retired the next two batters he faced for a 13-pitch first inning, despite the dinger. 1-0 Pittsburgh

In the bottom half, our offense promptly picked him up, thanks to a Ketel Marte four-pitch walk to start the home half, followed by a Gaby Moreno opposite-field single to right, and one out later, a Christian Walker single to left that scored Marte from second. After a Randal Grichuk (DHing against the lefty) flyout to center, Jake McCarthy got his first hit of the night, an infield single to Cruz at short, but Geno Suarez couldn’t do anything to drive anyone else home, grounding out to short to end things. Still, we’d hung 28 pitches on Marco Gonzales, and we’d tied things up quickly. 1-1 TIE

Pfaadt came back out for a nice, quick second, sitting down Pittsburgh in order with only ten more pitches thrown. That put his pitch count at 23, five less than the Pirates’ starter had thrown in one inning of work. That’s always fun.

Meanwhile, the offense decided to give Brandon some more run support—something they haven’t always been great at this year—in the bottom of the second. Corbin Carroll got the party started, leading off with a dinger of his own into the right field seats:

That was fun, and it got a little bit more fun after that. Geraldo Perdomo singled to right, then almost got thrown out at first after considering stretching it to a double, and then reached second on a couple of clown-show throws that went everywhere but where they were supposed to go by the Pittsburgh infielders. I really with there was a video highlight of that business, because it was pretty hilarious. That turned the lineup over for Ketel Marte, though, who made Perdomo’s place on the bases irrelevant by sending the first pitch he saw over the fence in roughly the same area as Corbin’s homer:

Clearly, it was a good night for souvenir hunters to be sitting in the right field seats. Anyway, Marco Gonzales settled down after that, ending the inning without further damage, despite a two-out walk he surrendered to Christian Walker. 4-1 D-BACKS

Pfaadt, meanwhile, cruised through both the third and the fourth, retiring the Pirates in order with only 17 more pitches thrown, putting him at 40 pitches through four innings. That’s some ace-ish stuff right there, I gotta say.

Meanwhile, Gonzales got into trouble again in the bottom of the third, giving up a leadoff single to McCarthy (which, amusingly, was another grounder to short where he beat the throw by Oneil Cruz) and then a one-out four-pitch walk to Corbin Carroll, which ended his night early. Some gentleman named Dennis Santana came out to relieve him, and struck out Perdomo and Marte to put up the first zero on the scoreboard for Pittsburgh’s pitchers. He pitched the fourth as well, allowing Moreno another opposite field single into right (after which Moreno stole second, because our catcher is a speed demon), but putting up another zero by striking out Lourdes Gurriel, Jr., Walker, and Grichuk. Santana seems to be a pretty questionable bullpen piece, but the dude did record all five outs he recorded via the strikeout, so credit where credit is due.

The wheels sort of came off the bus for Pfaadt in the top of the fifth, uncharacteristically so given how good he’s been of late. To a certain extent, though, the defense let him down (with his own defense being part of it), despite no errors being recorded. Pirates left fielder Joshua Palacios singled to left to start things off. Ke’Bryan Hayes then hit a grounder to first that Christian Walker unexpectedly failed to make a play on. Marte collected it with his back turned to the infield, and threw to first, but Walker hadn’t recovered and Pfaadt, who should have been covering the base, had given up on the play, so the throw went past the bag. Thankfully, Moreno was backing that up, so things weren’t too bad. Then Joey Bart, the Pirates’ catcher, came to the plate, and put on a deeply pesky AB that resulted in him lofting the eighth pitch that he saw into left field. Gurriel was playing shallow for whatever reason, and the ball went over his head and rolled to the wall for an RBI double that scored Palacios. A sacrifice fly scored Hayes from third, and then an infield single by Pittsburgh center fielder Michael A. Taylor drove home Bart, though due to some baserunning weirdness Taylor was called out after Marte threw to first, Walker missed the throw, and the ball hit Taylor in the foot while he was still in the field of play. I think that’s what happened, anyway? Anyway, Pfaadt struck out McCutchen looking to finally end the frame, but damage had certainly been done. 4-4 TIE

The tie, however, did not last long, as the Diamondbacks offense rolled up their sleeves and answered back again. McCarthy led off the bottom of the fifth against new Pittsburgh reliever Quinn Priester with his third single of the evening, this one a legit, non-speed-dependent hit into left field. Priester then hit Suarez with the first pitch he threw him, and then walked Carroll on four pitches to load the bases with nobody out. Perdomo hit a sacrifice fly to right to score McCarthy, Ketel hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Suarez, and while that was that, it gave us, and Pfaadt, the lead again. 6-4 D-BACKS

Oneil Cruz led off the top of the sixth for Pittsburgh, and again demonstrated how dangerous a hitter he can be, tripling over Jake McCarthy’s head to pretty much straightaway center. Pfaadt got the next two outs on two pitches, but the second one was a comebacker to him, and he chose, wisely, to allow Cruz to score from third while he threw to first for the sure out. Palacios then singled again, but Pfaadt retired Haves to stop it there. 6-5 D-BACKS

Our Diamondbacks, meanwhile, couldn’t seem to stop answering back. Gurriel singled to left to lead off the bottom of the sixth, and then Priester hit Christian Walker—he wasn’t throwing at our hitters, I don’t think, his control just sucks. Then, because there was now a righty on the mound, Joc Pederson pinch hit for Grichuk, and decided to do his best Oneil Cruz impression and hit a triple of his own down the right field line:

Joc Pederson is not a fast man, so that was kind of fun and hilarious to see. McCarthy then drove Pederson in with his fourth single of the evening, this one a line drive to right. Jake then stole second, but was left standing there as Priester settled down and sat down the bottom of the Diamondbacks order. 9-5 D-BACKS

And that’s pretty much all she wrote. Justin Martinez pitched a perfect seventh for us, new acquisition AJ Puk pitched a scoreless eighth, the only blemish being a two-out walk, and Bryce Jarvis pitched a scoreless ninth despite surrendering a one-out single to Hayes. Similarly, Priester pitched the rest of the way against us, recording the only 1-2-3 inning Pirates pitchers managed in the seventh, and putting up another zero in the eighth, pitching around Jake McCarthy’s fifth single of the evening.

Win Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs

The Good: Corbin Carroll (2 AB, 1 H, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 HR, 2 BB, +20.0% WPA), Ketel Marte (3 AB, 1 H, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, +14.7% WPA), Christian Walker (3 AB, 1 H, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, +13.3% WPA), Joc Pederson (2 AB, 1 H, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 3B, +12.6% WPA), Jake McCarthy (5 AB, 5 H, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 SB, +10.9% WPA)
The Not-So-Good: Brandon Pfaadt (6 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 1 HR, 4 K, 0 BB, -21.6% WPA)

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a game where five offensive players had WPAs above +10, but that just underscores that this was a game where our hitters picked up and carried our pitcher. It was very nice to see, and about damn time, frankly.

Anyway. We had a very lively and well-attended Gameday Thread tonight, with 287 comments at time of writing. Folks were very generous with their rec’s tonight as well (or the quality of tonight’s comments was especially high, perhaps), so I have plenty of Sedona Red to choose from. Comment of the Game has to go to our Fearless Leader, though, not only because democracy, but also his comment captured the key reality of this game:

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Anyhow. Potential broom deployment tomorrow, as we go for the three-game sweep against Pittsburgh. Mitch Keller goes for the Pirates, and he’s perhaps the toughest pitcher we’re going to face in this series. Young Yilber Diaz goes for us, so here’s hoping the kid can bounce back from his rough third outing against Kansas City on Monday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10pm AZ time, TheRealRamona will have the guest recap. Hope you can join us!

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!