If I were to be a betting man… I would probably stay well away from this category. Because there is a presumptive favorite which is so strong, the odds on it would not be worth logging on to my sports betting account. However, maybe we will be surprised? Part of me almost wants to be, though that would likely trigger a special session of the SnakePit Electoral Commission. On the other hand, part of me wants to call the men in white coats on anyone who votes for one of the other nominees. Weirdly,
three of the five came in April.
4/2: Zac Gallen strikes out 13 Yankees in 6.2 scoreless innings
Since 2001 (when Randy Johnson did it three times!), only one AZ pitcher has fanned 13+ batters in an outing of under seven innings – Robbie Ray in July 2017. Gallen did it without walking a batter: no other D-back since Zack Greinke in 2018, has had a K:BB of 13:0 or better in a game. Zac was the first ever with such a game against the Yankees. It should probably have been seven innings and 14 K, save for a checked swing not called on Austin Wells. Gallen said, diplomatically, after the game, “I always think they swing, but this time I was like, ‘That really looked like a swing.’ I have a lot of texts on my phone right now reassuring me it was a swing.”
4/26: Eugenio Suarez: four home-runs
At the time, Suarez did something only 18 players in the entire history of the major leagues had done, a feat rarer than the cycle, rarer than a perfect game. Coincidentally, the last player before him to do it had also been a Diamondbacks: J.D. Martinez, against the Dodgers in September 2017. While it didn’t lead to a D-backs win – only the second time since the 19th century a player has hit four runs in a team loss – it did make Torey Lovullo the first manager in baseball history to oversee a pair of four homer games. It’s all the more remarkable because Suarez came into the game batting .167 across the first 26 games. He increased his OPS 179 points in one night.
4/27: Corbin’s All-Around Masterpiece
Nominated by 1AZFan1: “It looked like it might be another short outing for Pfaadt, but he got Ozuna to pop into foul territory where Corbin made the catch, gathered himself and fired home for the double play. Pfaadt ended up going 6 IP with 2 ER overall. After that exhilarating start to the game, Corbin one-upped himself with a triple left-center field and coming home to score the game’s first run. 1-0 D-backs basically all thanks to Carroll. Carroll then got a second triple later in the game, the first of 4(!) games that season he would triple twice in the same game. No one else in baseball got 2 triples in the same game more than once this year.”
7/25: Anthony DeSclafani: 4 IP, 0 H, +65.1% WP in 1-0 win
Coming in to protect a 1-0 lead for an inning, on the road, is among the toughest tasks for any reliever. So what about doing that for four consecutive innings? That’s what DiSclafani did against the Pirates, coming in after Ryne Nelson had spun six frames of one-hit ball. Anthony didn’t allow a single hit to the fifteen batters he faced, stranded the ghost runner in the tenth, and picked up the win after Eugenio Suarez hit a sacrifice fly for the game’s only run in the 11th. His +65.1% Win Probability was the highest in franchise history for a reliever – nobody else out of the Arizona bullpen had reached even fifty percent since 2019.
9/17: Brandon Pfaadt’s nine scoreless innings of one-hit ball
Pfaadt became the first D-back in more than two years to throw nine scoreless innings. While it was the 55th such performance, he became just the third pitcher in team history not to win the game, the last being Edwin Jackson in June 2010. It took him just 97 pitches, the fewest by a D-back in such an appearance since Josh Collmenter’s imperfecto in 2014. He allowed only a walk in the first inning, and a single in the sixth – the latter erased two pitches later by a double-play. Said Pfaadt, “ I just want to shout out McCann back there. A lot of that credit goes to him. He had me dialed in all day and he was calling all the pitches back there, so I just had to execute it.”
Poll is below, explain your choice – especially if it’s not that one! – in the comments…
