Unusually for me, I went into this game completely cold: I barely got to watch yesterday’s game, we haven’t had Guardians games on the TV much this year, and I didn’t have a chance to read DBE’s series preview, as I was very much in the throes of moving hell until this morning. But my sense from looking at the teams’ respective records and such suggested to me that the Guardians are pretty much the same as always: as a team they can’t seem to hit their way out of a wet paper bag, but their ability
to nurture and develop and roll out some of the best pitching in the Majors both in terms of starters and bullpen arms keeps them contending or close to contending despite even the most dismal offensive metrics. Given that our offense has been, well, erratic in 2026, and given that we seem to have enormous difficulty hitting even decent starting pitching, I figured this would be, like last night’s game, another low-scoring contest that would likely be decided by how the respective bullpens fares.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I sure wasn’t right about the first part of that, anyway. So.
Cleveland starter Parker Messick entered today with an ERA of 2.59, having pitched into at least the sixth inning in all of his starts but one this year, from reviewing his 2026 game logs he seemed to be a sort of pitch-to-contact guy who didn’t strike out a whole lot of guys but didn’t walk many either. For guys like that, throwing strikes and getting weak contact tends to be key. He wasn’t like that today, at least not at first—he walked Corbin Carroll on four pitches to lead off the ball game, and then let Geraldo Perdomo run the count full before surrendering a ground ball single into shallow left to put runners on first and second with nobody out. He then sturck out Gabriel Moreno and Ketel Marte in succession, and induced a Nolan Arenado grounder to short to escape without damage, but we made him throw 22 pitches to get there, which struck me as a hopeful sign.
Kohl Drake was starting for us, meanwhile, and things didn’t start off particularly well for the somewhat hapless young man. He gave up a lead-off single to Steven Kwan, and then two outs later served up a 1-1 fastball on the outer third of the zone to Rhys Hopkins, who promptly deposited in over the wall in left center to given the Guardians the early lead. 2-0 Cleveland
And that was, despite some mild traffic, all that happened until the top of the fifth. Drake struggled along, throwing way more pitches than one would have liked to see but not giving up any more runs at least. He finally recorded his lone 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, though he needed 20 pitches to make that happen, and by the time his twelfth out was recorded he had thrown 94 pitches total. So. Not great, but at least he kept the game close for his four innings of work.
Messick, meanwhile, continued to put up zeros in his innings, until a truly silly sequence of events transpired in the top of the fifth inning. Paul Waldschindt squeaked out a one-out infield single behind shortstop, and Corbin Carroll snuck a ball just under the Guardians’ second baseman’s glove and into shallow center for another single. Perdomo came to the plate and, um, this happened:
If you can’t view the highlight, Perdomo hit a grounder between first and second and Rhys Hopkins dove for it, gloved in, and flipped to first to try to catch Perdomo. Only Parker Messick wasn’t covering the bag, and there was nobody there, so it went rolling toward the dugout, so Perdomo took second, Carroll advanced to third and Waldschmidt crossed the plate on was scored a Perdomo single and a Hopkins error. That chased Messick from the game after 4 1/3 innings, but the wackiness wasn’t entirely over, either, as Moreno then grounded to third off new reliever Colin Holderman, with Carroll breaking for the plate on contact, and Perdomo got caught in a rundown between second and third while giving Corbin time to score the tying run. 2-2 TIE
And now it was indeed up to the bullpens, and indeed the bullpens decided it, and really, aside from stray Diamondbacks runs in the top of the eighth and the top of the ninth, it was really a tale of two half-innings: the top of the seventh when we truly broke it open, and then the bottom of the eighth, when the Guardians mounted a disturbingly convincing comeback threat.
So, the top of the seventh. Hunter Gaddis came out of the ‘pen for Cleveland, and Perdomo launched the first pitch Gaddis threw him over the wall in right center to break the tie. One out later he drilled Marte with a pitch, and then wallked Nolan Arenado on five pitches, and after getting Tim Tawa to fly out to center for the second out of the inning, gave up a single to Ildemaro Vargas that scored Marte. That chased Gaddis and brought in another rando from the Cleveland ‘pen. A passed ball advanced Arenado and Vargas, James McCann blooped a double just inside the chalk along the right field line, Ryan Waldschmidt was hit by a pitch, Aleman advanced them both with a wild pitch, and finally Corbin Carroll launched a rocket over the fence in right center to cap a seven-run Diamondbacks inning:
9-2 DBACKS
In the top of the eighth, Nolan Arenado hit a two-out solo shot to get us to triple digits, and it turned out we needed the extra breathing space, if only for our own peace of mind. 10-2 DBACKS
Because Paul Sewald came out to start the bottom of the eighth for us, and it didn’t go well. I mean, it really didn’t go well. Like, “it may be the last time we see Paul Sewald pitch in a Diamondbacks uniform” stuff. Guardians DH Chase DeLauter sent the first pitch Sewald threw over the fence in right, and after that Paul gave up four successive singles before finally being pulled from the game without recording an out. Kevin Ginkel camme in to clean up the bases-loaded no-outs mess, and while he got us out of it with the lead intact, five runs came in for Cleveland, all of them earned and all of them attributed to Paul Sewald. If this is the end for him as a Diamondback, it’s truly a terrible way to go, and was heartbreaking to see, especially given how much good he’s done for us throughout most of 2026. 10-7 DBACKS
The team did pick up their fallen closer though, a bit, pushing across two additional runs in the top of the ninth, and Jonathan Loaisiga brought it home for us, despite giving up one run while pitching a non-save ninth inning. 12-7 DBACKS FINAL
Win Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Garaldo Perdomo (6 AB, 4 H, 1 R, 3 RBI, 1 HR, +44% WPA)
USS Cod Submarine Memorial: Gerardo Carrillo (2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 K, +14% WPA), James McCann ( 4 AB, 3 H, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 K, 1 HBP, +12% WPA)
The Cuyahoga River: Tim Tawa (4 AB, 0 H, 1 K, -12% WPA), Gabriel Moreno (6 AB, 0 H, 1 RBI, 1 K, -11% WPA)
It was a truly banner night on the Gameday Thread, with a whopping 539 comments (!!!!) at time of writing. To be fair, I’d guess that about 35% of them were directly related to and inspired by Paul Sewald’s tragic meltdown, but still, that’s an awful lot of comments. By popular acclaim, and also because it’s very much in keeping with the main thing a number of us will likely remember from this game, Comment of the Game goes to Bw:
If tonight does indeed wind up being Paul Sewald’s swan song, that’s really gonna suck. He deserves better, and he deserves to be remembered fondly and with gratitude by Diamondbacks fans, IMHO.
Anyway, bust out your brooms tomorrow to join guest recapper LeahAZFan as we try to sweep the series against the Guardians. Merrill Kelly takes the mound for the good guys, Gavin Williams goes for the Traffic Statues, first pitch is scheduled for 10:40am AZ time, so make sure to pack your coffee, donuts, and/or mimosas as well. Hope to see you!
And as always, thank you for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!
