Arizona

Diamondbacks

Marte led off the contest with his fifth round-tripper in his last seven contests and is now just four big flies shy of his previous career-high mark, which he set more than a half-decade ago back in 2019. The 30-year-old has firmly cemented his status as an elite five-category impact fantasy contributor at the keystone this season, batting .300 (126-for-420) with 78 runs scored, 28 homers, 78 RBI and six steals through 108 contests.

Martinez got the call to protect a narrow one-run margin in the 10th inning after Ryan Thompson was saddled with a blown save the previous inning when he surrendered a game-tying sacrifice fly that sent the contest to extra innings. He intentionally walked José Ramírez to put runners on the corners before striking out Josh Naylor and David Fry to preserve the victory. The hard-throwing 23-year-old righty should continue to factor into Arizona’s closing mix alongside Thompson and newly-acquired A.J. Puk moving forward, which makes him an interesting addition in deeper mixed leagues where every potential save is extremely valuable.

Gallen was roughed up for three runs over the first two frames of the contest, but managed to settle in afterwards, limiting Cleveland to just a pair of additional runs over his final five innings of work. He struck out four and also handed out a pair of free passes. The 29-year-old righty has struggled in his last handful of outings, but still boasts a respectable 3.75 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and 96/33 K/BB ratio across 100 2/3 innings (19 starts). He’s in line for a tough matchup on Saturday when he faces the Phillies in a home outing at Chase Field.

We’d expect Moreno to miss some time. Adrian Del Castillo and Ronaldo Hernandez would be the candidates to take his place on the roster. It’d be interesting to see what Del Castillo could do with playing time, but the Diamondbacks might play it safe and go with José Herrera most of the time.

Moreno was in considerable pain after getting while trying to leg out an infield single. It definitely looked like an IL-type situation. That’d be a big loss for a Diamondbacks team with Jose Herrera as a backup catcher. They do have prospect Adrian Del Castillo performing as one of the PCL’s best hitters this year, but his defense is suspect.

Ryan Thompson started the ninth inning here and got into trouble. So, Torey Lovullo called on Puk with Oneil Cruz up and two men on. Puk challenged Cruz with fastball after fastball and worked his way back from a 3-0 count to strike him out before getting Bryan De La Cruz to pop out to end the game. This closer job is up for grabs right now and Puk may have done enough to earn another shot at it.

Pederson’s blast brought the Diamondbacks ahead in a game they trailed 4-0 early against Paul Skenes. It was his 17th of the season as he’s been a fixture in the three-hole for Arizona against right-handed pitchers and has torched them for a .945 OPS on the season.

The Pirates jumped on Nelson early with four runs in two innings, but he did well to settle this game down after that. Nelson has enjoyed a nice run with 37 strikeouts and nine walks over his last six starts (37 1/3 innings). That period exactly coincides with a big pitch-mix change: Nelson has thrown his fastball at least 60% of the time in all six of those starts after not doing so once to that point in the season.

Montgomery had allowed one run, a solo homer by Joey Bart, through three innings before his start was cut short by a rain delay against the Pirates. He struck out three. The 31-year-old left-hander will take a 6.37 ERA, 1.66 WHIP, and a 51/29 K/BB ratio across 77 2/3 innings into a start against the Phillies in Arizona on Thursday.

Lovullo didn’t rule out the possibility of Sewald regaining the role eventually, but the Diamondbacks are going to turn to some of their alternatives moving forward. It was Ryan Thompson who was summoned to protect a two-run lead on Friday night in Pittsburgh, but we’re assuming Justin Martinez, Kevin Ginkel and newly-acquired A.J. Puk will be in the mix for save chances moving forward.