After a lengthy stint in Triple-A, the right-hander dismantled the San Francisco Giants with an aggressive mix, securing a crucial divisional win for the injury-plagued Arizona Diamondbacks rotation.
The Arizona Diamondbacks didn't give much notice before announcing Brandon Pfaadt as their game two starter against the San Francisco Giants.
Pfaadt, 27, made his first big-league start since he threw just one inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers back on Wednesday, June 3.
With nearly a full month to get back on track, Pfaadt really honed in on a few things in particular in Triple-A, and everything paid off big time.
Pfaadt picked up his first win of the season on Tuesday, June 30, as part of an 8-2 Diamondbacks win over the Giants.
This may have only been Pfaadt's fourth start of the year, but the team didn't have much of a choice as injuries left them in a tricky situation. Instead of dropping a game and having to rely on the series finale, Pfaadt's efforts proved to be more than enough to take down a division rival.
Pfaadt Discusses Big-League Return
"I think the main thing was just being aggressive, being relentless in the strike zone, and that's something that we honed in on in Triple-A," he said, according to MLB.com.
Pfaadt helped the Diamondbacks improve to 8-0 against a struggling Giants team here in 2026. After Tuesday's contest, Arizona sits at 43-42 while San Francisco has fallen to an unthinkable 15 games below .500, 35-50.
Overall, Pfaadt looked great on the mound. He only needed 66 pitches to get through 5.1 innings, and 42 of those pitches were for strikes. Sure, he walked a batter and gave up a home run, but it was a solo shot and turned out to be the only run he allowed in his start.
To make things even more impressive, it's important to remember this was Pfaadt's longest start in the majors since Sunday, April 19. He went 6.0-plus innings in three of his first four appearances, but since then hadn't thrown more than 3.0 innings in an outing.
Diamondbacks Manager Was Impressed
Manager Torey Lovullo chimed in, "I think he had good finish, good life on his fastball, and there was an extra gear on it. In my opinion, it had a little extra hop.
"And then he looked like he threw some really good changeups early and got into a rhythm with that pitch," Lovullo said. "And then the breaking ball was exactly where he wanted it. So, I think it was a three-, four-pitch mix that he could go to at any time."
Pfaadt may have only struck out a pair, but he allowed just three hits, one of which was the solo homer. All things considered, things couldn't have come much better as he's now 1-1 on the year with a 5.40 ERA and 1.41 WHIP.
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