A night after a 5-4 loss that got away in the ninth, the Arizona Diamondbacks evened their weekend series with the St. Louis Cardinals, winning 5-3 at Chase Field on Saturday to reach 50-48. That puts Arizona two games over .500 and 1.5 back of the National League’s final wild-card spot with the trade deadline just over two weeks off.
Brandon Pfaadt did the heavy lifting, holding St. Louis to two runs on six hits over 5.1 innings without walking a batter. He improved to 4-1, and the bullpen covered the last 3.2 innings while allowing one run. Paul Sewald — the man tagged for Friday’s loss — surrendered a ninth-inning solo homer to Jimmy Crooks, covered in Saturday’s quick hit, but finished the save anyway.
The offense did its work early against Dustin May: a run in the second, three in the third, and another in the fourth. May lasted five innings and gave up five runs on eight hits and four walks. Nolan Arenado went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs against his former club, Ketel Marte added a 2-for-3 night with an RBI, and Gabriel Moreno reached base three times, scored twice, and lifted his average to .309.
The formula was old-fashioned. Arizona never homered, out-walked the Cardinals 5-2, and moved runners station to station — five runs on eight hits, built on patience and pressure rather than one swing. Against a starter handing out free bases, that was enough by the fourth inning.
The D-backs are 6-4 in their last 10, and the schedule gives them a rubber match with St. Louis on Sunday before the deadline calculus sharpens. General manager Mike Hazen has said he wants to buy; days like Saturday, with the wild-card gap down to 1.5 games, are the argument for it.
For fantasy purposes, Pfaadt’s 4.58 ERA still limits him to streamer territory, but a zero-walk start against a patient lineup is the right kind of sign, and he has now won four decisions in a row by our count of the game log. Moreno at .309 belongs in weekly catcher conversations, and Arenado’s RBI opportunities keep coming while he hits behind Marte and Moreno in a lineup getting on base at this clip.
