Arizona

Brandon Pfaadt steps up as Diamondbacks crush Dodgers

Published

2 years ago

September 2, 2024

Brandon Pfaadt steps up as Diamondbacks crush Dodgers

PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks forced the Los Angeles Dodgers to admit defeat less than three innings into Sunday’s 14-3 victory, giving themselves a chance to salvage a four-game split and win the season series on Monday.

Los Angeles pulled stars Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez in the third after the D-backs put up an eight-run second inning to blow the game open.

The Diamondbacks (77-60) had fallen to six games behind Los Angeles (82-55) after frustrating losses on Friday and Saturday. Now, another D-backs win on Monday would keep L.A.’s National League West lead within four games with the tiebreaker in Arizona’s hands.

“I’m not saying it was a must-win game, but it was a very, very important game,” manager Torey Lovullo said.

“We know the standings. We’re following it. We’re chasing the Dodgers, all that stuff, but what impresses me most is our ability to block that out, go out, execute and win the game the way we did today. It’s no errors. It’s Brandon Pfaadt staying locked in and almost giving us a quality start despite the the risk of letting things wander. Our focus was right. Those are the things that stand out to me.”

Torey Lovullo was pleased with the Diamondbacks’ execution in the win over the Dodgers.
“Our focus was right.” pic.twitter.com/Z0Zpk3MEoh
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) September 2, 2024

Brandon Pfaadt gives Diamondbacks needed start vs. Dodgers

After Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly each allowed five runs over the first two innings on Friday and Saturday, Pfaadt effectively shut down the Dodgers early. Pfaadt began his outing with three scoreless innings and seven strikeouts, punching out Dodgers superstars Shohei Ohtani, Betts and Freeman in order during the third.

“I think it was kind of similar to (Philadelphia) last year, that’s kind of the feeling that it was,” Pfaadt said. “We know these games are important. With what happened the last two days, I think shutting them down in that first inning was important and certainly an aspect of going into the game being aggressive and trying to limit damage.”

Pfaadt threw 5.2 scoreless innings against the Phillies in Game 3 of the NLCS as a rookie with the D-backs trailing 2-0 in the series.

On Sunday, he allowed one earned run through five innings before the Dodgers scratched a couple in the sixth. Pfaadt finished with 5.2 innings and three earned runs, nearly earning a quality start for the first time Aug. 7. The right-hander struck out 10 batters.

Brandon Pfaadt, K’ing the Side in the 3rd.
7Ks thru 3. pic.twitter.com/QwEfWTcLyl
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 1, 2024

It was a stopper-type performance after the Dodgers gave Gallen and Kelly trouble, as this time the offense was able to break out a significant lead instead of having to mount comebacks.

Chase Field was packed with more than 46,000 fans for the third straight game, and Pfaadt said he loves pitching in that playoff-like environment.

“I think that just gives you a little extra motivation to go out there and do your job and gives you some fire to go out there and be aggressive,” Pfaadt said. “Regardless if there’s 2,000 people or 40,000, we’re trying to do the same job. But it’s a little easier when you get the fans behind you.”

Brandon Pfaadt said the feeling going into Sunday’s big win over Dodgers reminded him of Game 3 of the NLCS vs. Philadelphia. pic.twitter.com/eQISz1nWYk
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) September 1, 2024

Joe Mantiply vs. Shohei Ohtani

Lovullo pulled Pfaadt with Ohtani coming up in a 9-3 game to insert Joe Mantiply.

Mantiply has been Arizona’s version of an Ohtani-stopper this season, as Ohtani is 1-for-9 against Mantiply with three strikeouts. Mantiply has faced Ohtani in three straight games and retired him thrice. And the swings did not look comfortable.

“I can’t help but think every time Ohtani comes up, he’s gonna hit a ball over the fence,” Lovullo said. “I wanted to keep it at 9-3 because I didn’t want to have to go into our leverage relievers. I was going to sacrifice Mantiply, who threw three days in a row. He’s done it before, against this very team, and I felt like he would have success.”

Randal Grichuk leads Diamondbacks’ rally

The Diamondbacks scored their eight runs with seven hits in the second inning. Randal Grichuk started it off with a double and capped it with the home run off Dodgers southpaw starter Justin Wrobleski.

Grichuk, Geraldo Perdomo, Corbin Carroll, Josh Bell, Eugenio Suarez and Kevin Newman all had multi-hit days, as the D-backs finished with 17 knocks. Carroll set the franchise record by reaching base safely for a 40th straight start.

Lovullo credited Grichuk for turning the page after Friday. Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw exited that game with injury, and Lovullo pinch hit the left-handed Joc Pederson for Grichuk in only the second inning. Grichuk has been a platoon bat all year, but with limited matchups against lefties, he only received 39 plate appearances in August.

“There’s been a lot of ups and downs. Not playing every day is tough, so you have to stay mentally in a place where I’d say you’re okay with not producing but not beating yourself up,” Grichuk said. “Playing a couple times a week is a tough role in this game. Pitchers are nasty. If you’re not getting those every day at-bats, it’s tough. … Just got to go up there with confidence. When the mechanics are clicking, games like today happen.”

Randal Grichuk – Arizona Diamondbacks (6)
pic.twitter.com/SNWLmAaCJV
— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) September 1, 2024

“I know he’s hungry to play more,” Lovullo said. “But, and what I’ve said to him recently, in the model we have, this is his role. This is what he does best to help us win games.”

Checking in on Arizona’s designated hitter production, the position accounted for a .900 OPS ahead of Grichuk’s Sunday. That ranked third in MLB behind Los Angeles and Atlanta. Last year, before Grichuk and Pederson signed as free agents, it was .678, which ranked 27th.

Diamondbacks-Dodgers finale

The final meeting between the Diamondbacks and Dodgers this season starts at 1:10 p.m. on Labor Day Monday.

Arizona will send left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (5.06 ERA) to the hill, while Los Angeles gives the ball to right-hander Jack Flaherty (3.07). The season series is 6-6.

Catch the season series finale on the Arizona Sports app, 98.7 and ArizonaSports.com.

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Arizona

Arizona tackling heat mitigation, could their efforts translate to Nevada

Published

3 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Press Room

Arizona tackling heat mitigation, could their efforts translate to Nevada

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Reno and Las Vegas are the two fastest-warming cities in the entire country.

Tonight we take a look at what neighboring Arizona is doing to address similar heat challenges, and whether those steps can work in Nevada.

Las Vegas has several areas called urban heat islands, which are hotter than the surrounding areas because of less vegetation, such as trees, and more concrete development.

Residents in East Las Vegas, one of the areas considered an urban heat island, say they’re not surprised that temperatures continue to rise, especially in their part of town.

“Definitely, when you go more to outskirts, there’s definitely more shade, more trees everywhere, but more in the center of town it’s very much less,” said Anthony Flores.

He believes there could be more relief from the heat.

“More water accessibility, more shade overall,” said Flores, whose line of work causes him to be outside every day. “I usually drink over two gallons of water a day just to keep not getting heat stroke.”

Charlie Ponce agrees with him.

“Definitely more trees that are useful, not like palm trees or anything like that. Parks that have like the water parks in them,” said Ponce. “Yeah, splash pads.”

Valley cities and Clark County have implemented steps like having cooling stations and tree-planting campaigns to help address heat challenges.

Phoenix and other parts of Arizona are also experiencing extreme heat every summer, as well as drought issues.

UNLV Public Policy Professor Dr. Ben Leffel says there are steps in the neighboring state that can be useful here in Nevada, where temperatures historically continue to be on the rise.

“For example, Phoenix has an ordinance that says that tenants must have rooms that are coolable to at least 86 degrees Fahrenheit,” said Dr. Leffel. “And that’s then also that first responders are equipped with chilled IV therapy and cold water immersion and things like that.”

News 3 spoke with heat mitigation and management experts in Arizona to see what they believe has been working for them.

One thing they mentioned was that Arizona has the first state-level chief heat officer.

“We have much better and much more accurate numbers now about who’s actually getting sick and who’s dying from heat-related deaths, and what the causes and kind of contributing factors are. So, if you don’t track something, you can’t understand what’s going on with it,” said Dr. Ladd Keith, Heat Resilience Initiative Director at the University of Arizona.

Ponce thinks it would help in Las Vegas.

“Like, let them know to tell the public like, hey, in these areas it’s getting out of hand, and this is what we can do as a community, or just have someone like regulated or watch over it,” she said.

And the city of Phoenix also has an entire heat office, something that can be beneficial on a local level, like being able to coordinate between different groups like homeless outreach, the hospitals, etcetera.

“Statewide coordination of cooling centers, lessons learned that are shared across different working groups, and so just a lot of cooperation that really creates a lot of efficiency too, and so I think that’s an important thing to note, is there is a cost to this, but the efforts are saving lives, and I think it’s making government more efficient,” said Keith.

Amy Scoville-Weaver, the Healthy Cities Program Director in Arizona for The Nature Conservancy, says the Phoenix Metro has done well with increasing vegetation, including in areas where there’s drought.

“So we’re looking at supporting and planting hardy trees, drought-tolerant trees, trees that are already designed, designed to live and thrive in water-scarce environments,” said Scoville-Weaver.

She says they also look at improving infrastructure to support it.

“So when it does rain, the water doesn’t just go down asphalt, get polluted, and go through a storm drain; rather, that water is being diverted to vegetation that needs it,” said Scoville-Weaver.

Leffel says another thing to keep in mind is heat safety can also come from indoor policies.

“For example, Phoenix has an ordinance that says that tenants must have rooms that are coolable to at least 86 degrees Fahrenheit,” he said.

A new Nevada law that went into effect last week requires larger jurisdictions to come up with heat mitigation plans.

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Arizona

Arizona Cardinals’ Jordan Burch takes lessons from rookie year

Published

13 hours ago

July 9, 2026

Press Room

Arizona Cardinals’ Jordan Burch takes lessons from rookie year

Last year in early July, Cardinals edge rusher Jordan Burch was a rookie third-round draft pick out of Oregon who was looking forward to his first NFL training camp and eventual first season.

That rookie year is behind him now, and Burch has identified what he needs to improve on heading into his second season. He said he now knows what to expect and look for, and after talking with outside linebackers coach Matt Feeney, Burch built an offseason plan with which he was comfortable.

“I don’t think anything was like a surprise,” Burch said on Thursday, July 9, at the Cardinals’ Tempe headquarters. “I kind of know what to prep for, so this offseason I can look at my old plays, and then I can call my coach and tell him, from last year to this year, what does he want to see on the field.”

Burch seeks to improve his pass rush. He played in all 17 games last season and had five solo tackles with a sack, and also broke up three passes.

Much of his position was dropping into pass coverage, so Burch looks to recognize pass catchers’ routes better in 2026. He gets help from veteran Josh Sweat, who is there to answer questions about the position they share.

“Every week, every game going against somebody good,” Burch said about takeaways from last season. “The talent of the quarterbacks. We’re playing the Rams, how quickly they get the ball out.”

Burch looks forward to building a stronger bond with his teammates, having invited some of them for dinner or to watch TV. He said he was happy with his progress as a player throughout last season.

The Cardinals open training camp Wednesday, July 22, at State Farm Stadium. It’s a week earlier than most teams because Arizona plays the Carolina Panthers in the Aug. 6 Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio.

Cardinals legend Larry Fitzgerald will be among those inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Aug. 8.

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Arizona

Arizona is among the worst states to move to, study says. Here’s why

Published

23 hours ago

July 9, 2026

Press Room

Arizona is among the worst states to move to, study says. Here’s why

A new study has ranked Arizona as one of the worst states to move to for two years in a row, largely due to what it calls a poor quality of life.

The study conducted by Consumer Affairs analyzed the best states to move to in the United States, putting Arizona at the bottom of the list.

Before Arizonans get too defensive about the Grand Canyon State, Consumer Affairs used factors such as affordability, safety, economic strength and education to measure each state, leaving out factors like entertainment, retirement benefits and other considerations that may be important to people living here.

Popular states such as California and New York also landed at the bottom of the list due to their lack of affordability, even though they both have some of the best health care and education in the nation, Consumer Affairs noted.

Here’s why the study says you shouldn’t move to Arizona. Do you agree?

Why you shouldn’t move to Arizona

Arizona ranked No. 10 out of the worst states to move to, scoring especially poorly in quality of life.

Quality of life was measured by the state’s Social Progress Index, average air quality, weather, environmental protection and number of national parks. Due to Arizona’s extreme summers and Phoenix’s consistently poor air quality, it’s easy to see why Arizona ranked No. 44 in quality of life out of 50 states, even though the Grand Canyon is one of the most popular national parks in the nation.

However, Arizona also ranked poorly in other categories, sitting at No. 42 in health care and education, No. 41 in safety and No. 34 in affordability out of 50 states.

There was one category Arizona did impressively well in, ranking No. 5 in economic strength even as one of the youngest states in the country. Still, Arizona’s economic power wasn’t enough to boost its ranking.