The Arizona Diamondbacks, playing on their home turf, faced a challenging contest against the visiting Chicago Cubs. The game, marked by moments of both brilliance and frustration, ultimately resulted in a tough loss for the home team. We’ll delve into the key moments, including Brandon Pfaadt‘s start on the mound and Eugenio Suarez‘s powerful home run, and analyze the factors that contributed to the final outcome. Join us as we break down the game and explore the Diamondbacks’ path forward.
Brandon Pfaadt First 2025 Start
Brandon Pfaadt got his first start of the 2025 season, and has been the longest starter to go into the game so far. Pfaadt’s sweeper was really working for him well last night, getting four of his five strikeouts on that pitch.
The sweeper, was his main pitch that he used last night, being able to throw it for a strike 50% of the time, he threw a little bit of everything at the Cubs last night, also throwing in a sinker, curve and a changeup. That curveball was also able to strike out Gage Workman, for his second K of the night.
Pfaadt did have a fielding mistake in the first inning, which could’ve gotten him out just a little bit earlier. After a pop-up from Seiya Suzuki, Pfaadt went to field to pop-up and couldn’t get it in the glove. That extended the at-bat.
Pfaadt’s start was going pretty well, until the top of the fifth, where Jon Berti, came up to bat and swung at the first pitch he saw. A 91 mph sinker from Pfaadt that went to right field. Berti stopped at first, and Pfaadt had one runner on. After a two-pitch battle, that Pfaadt was trying to get Ian Happ hit into a double play. He was able to get him to fly out to center.
That opened the door for Kyle Tucker, the newest Cub that was acquired this offseason. It was a good battle, where Pfaadt was able to come back from being down 1-2. Then Pfaadt made a huge mistake, he left a low change-up right on Kyle Tucker’s red spot on the hit heatmap. A 2-run 405′ no doubter shot to right field.
The Cubs went up 3-1 and Pfaadt was able to settle down and sit down the next 3.
Pfaadt’s full line was 6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 K, 1 BB, 4.50 ERA
A solid outing for the first game of the season, a mistake for a young pitcher which im sure he will not make again. Pfaadt recently signed a multi-year extension with the Diamondbacks, and i will have a full review on Pfaadt and the contract coming out so keep an eye out for that in the coming days!
Click here for a sneak peek of that story!
Brandon Pfaadt and the Diamondbacks announced today that they have agreed on a five-year contract extension through 2030 (beginning in 2026) with a club option for 2031 and mutual option for 2032. The deal is for $45 million and includes a $21 million club option for 2031 and a $25 million mutual option for 2032, reports Robert Murray of Fansided. It also includes a limited no-trade clause in 2030-2032.
Brandon Pfaadt attended Trinity High School in Louisville, Kentucky and played college ball at Bellarmine University, the college has about 3,900 students enrolled. Where in his senior year, he had a 1.38 ERA in 26 innings, didn’t allow a single home-run and had 27 strikeouts. His performance was good enough to land him on the radar of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
In 2020, the Arizona Diamondbacks selected him in the fifth round of the MLB draft, where he didn’t see any play that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He finally made his first start in 2021 with the Visalia Rawhides, the Single-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks, where from there he was quickly promoted up the ranks, he saw some time with the Hillsboro Hops, where in 58.0 innings, he had a 67 strikeouts, a 2.48 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP.
Fielding Struggles?!
Yes, you read that right. The Diamondbacks are struggling hard with fielding. Per Jack Sommers, the Diamondbacks didn’t complete their first error last season until game 3 of the season. It was in game 7 of the year, where they committed their fifth error. That extremely consistent fielding, led the Diamondbacks to have one the best fielding teams of the 2024 season. They only allowed 62 errors in 162 games, about one error for every 2 and a half games.
Through three games, the Diamondbacks already have 6 errors and lead the league in errors. A very different sight from last season. Technically the Diamondbacks are currently on pace for 324 errors this season.
Torey Lovullo after the game mentioned that the team needs to tighten up on the little things.
Suarez New Found Success Against the Cubs
Last season, when Eugenio Suarez looks back on the Cubs matchups, looking at his stats, he seems like he dreaded it. Which is understandable, in 6 games against them, he had 23 AB’s, and was only able to get 3 hits, one of those being a homerun. He struck out nine times, walked once, which all accumulates to a .130 AVG.
But just like Groundhog’s day, Eugenio Suarez did it again. Another home-run, which brought his total to four on the season, which currently is tied for the lead in the MLB with Aaron Judge.
Suarez so far this series has 10 AB’s, 4 hits, 4 home runs, 7 rbi’s, 1 walk, and only 1 strikeout. Suarez is batting a .400 against them.
I am unfortunately not at the field to ask him what has led to this new-found success against the Cubs, but if he continues this reign today, and against the Yankees, he could potentially be a very early pick for NL MVP. Per FanDuel Sportsbook, he is a +25000 odds to win the award, one of the lowest odds in the book.
Player of the Game/Late Game Blunder
Well, this was pretty easy to choose, Eugenio Suarez is your Bear Sports News Player of the Game! After getting a home-run once again, he brought the Diamondbacks deficit from 3 to 1, and well. If you watched the game you know the rest, but if you didn’t. Let me break it down to you.
Eugenio Suarez gets the home run in the bottom the ninth and the crowd is back into it. Suarez was in the lineup sixth last night, so Moreno came up right after him. He was able to get a single and get on base.
At this point, Lovullo made the decision to switch Gabriel Moreno for Garrett Hampson as a pinch runner.
Jake Mccarthy came up to the plate and unfortunately struck out after trying to bunt to advance the runner. Perdomo was up to bat after that, and popped out to second.
This brought up Ketel Marte with two outs, and he was able to draw a walk, to get two runners on for Corbin Carroll.
Corbin Carroll swings at the fourth pitch of the AB and was able to get a blooper shot to Dawnsby Swanson, Swanson gloved it and tried to make a play at first, but with Carroll on the base path, there was no shot of that.
That’s when Garrett Hampson tries to go home, Swanson sees the mistake, Hampson tried to go back, but it was no use. Swanson tagged Hampson and the game was over.
The Diamondbacks almost fully capitalized on the home-run that Suarez provided but a tough mistake, ended all hopes of that.
Hampson spoke to reporters after the game and had this to say
Scouting Report for Matthew Boyd
Matthew Boyd came back in 2024, after Tommy John surgery. He had a 2-2 W-L record, 2.72 ERA, 46 K, .213 BAA, in 39.2 IP.
He has a all around arsenal, with his main pitch being a four-seamer, which he threw for 38.2% of the time and threw it for a strikeout 15 times.
He also has a changeup and a slider that he can also strike you out with, he paints the corners and box very well, where if you don’t swing and let one by, it might be a strike right at the corner.
Has very nice moving pitches, that can make batters swing at practically anything, low, inside, in the dirt.
Last season, his curveball, slider and four-seamer we’re extremely effective and batters couldn’t really hit it.
| Pitches Thrown | Batting AVG Against | Strikeouts | Min Velo | Max Velo | |
| Four-Seam | 256 (38.2%) | .150 | 15 | 87 | 94 |
| Change-Up | 175 (26.1%) | .261 | 10 | 77 | 84 |
| Slider | 116 (17.3%) | .148 | 14 | 76 | 82 |
| Sinker | 68 (10.1%) | .320 | 1 | 88 | 94 |
| Curveball | 54 (8.07%) | .167 | 6 | 70 | 78 |
Despite his last couple of rough outings in Spring Training, his 2024 stats, are definitely something to keep an eye on for his start against the Diamondbacks. If we see anything like we did from 2024 Boyd, it’s gonna be a very low scoring day for the Diamondbacks, with them swinging at low, high and pitches in the dirt.
Final Thoughts
The Diamondbacks have a chance to come out of this series, tying it with the Cubs but it all starts today. Eduardo Rodriguez gets his first start of the season against the Cubs, where he hasn’t seem much of them, but he has seen tons of Kyle Tucker, and Tucker only has a .167 against EdRod. It will be very interesting to see if this game turns into a pitching duel, or a all out run fest, but regardless, the Diamondbacks will look for a win here, before they start the season 1-3, which would be the first time since 2022.
I expect the Diamondbacks to be swinging at lots of pitches, trying to make up for the loss that happened last night, but if they take it slow, inning by inning, keep the ball in the field on defense, and out of it on offense. There should be no reason they can’t win.
The main question will be, can the Diamondbacks keep errors to a minimum for the remainder of the season.
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