2023-10-19 19:49:32
PHOENIX — Brandon Pfaadt had some good moments on the mound for Arizona during the regular season, but he struggled to prevent home runs. He allowed 22 in just 96 innings.
Now the Diamondbacks entrust themselves to the rookie right-hander for the third game of the National League Championship Series, in an effort to stop the Philadelphia Phillies, who have not tired of hitting home runs and enter the game with a lead of 2 -0 in the best series in a maximum of seven duels.
Philadelphia’s lead has come from six home runs. So the outlook doesn’t look good for Arizona.
“Yesterday’s result was really frustrating,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo, who spoke Wednesday, a day following Philadelphia routed Arizona 10-0 at Citizens Bank Park. “Our performance was simply not close to our capabilities or expectations. We have to find a way to turn this around. “Our mentality is that if we play well we can win and get back to the series.”
The 2-0 deficit is the first adversity the Diamondbacks have encountered in October. They went just 84-78 in the regular season, and earned the last available spot in the National League as the sixth seed, but they won their first five games of the postseason to sweep Milwaukee in a two-out-of-three series. Los Angeles Dodgers in another three of five.
That successful march came to an abrupt halt in Philadelphia. Kyle Schwarber has three homers in the series, including a pair in Game 2, while Bryce Harper, Nick Castellanos and Trea Turner have also hit homers.
“They are a hot team. We knew they were,” Lovullo said. “They are made to hit.”
The good news for the Diamondbacks is that Pfaadt is coming off one of his best outings of the year. The 25-year-old pitcher pitched four and a third scoreless innings in Game 3 of the National League Division Series, helping Arizona complete the sweep of the Dodgers, who had achieved 100 wins in the regular season and whose hitting It included Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, two stars who were once named Most Valuable Player.
But the Dodgers didn’t hit the wood. And that will hardly happen to the Phillies.
Pfaadt hopes the change of scenery to the Arizona desert will help the Diamondbacks.
“We dominated Milwaukee’s lineup and the Dodgers’ lineup,” Pfaadt said. “I think we can sustain ourselves now. If we show that on the return to our park and if we limit the damage, the situation will tilt in our favor. I think we can get stronger.”
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