Brandon Pfaadt threw five effective innings in his first outing of the season, helping the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 5-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday in Phoenix.
Arizona rebounded from Saturday’s 9-4 loss to the Rockies to take three of four games in the season-opening series.
The Diamondbacks offense collected just five hits, two coming from Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
In the bottom of the first, Gurriel singled home Corbin Carroll, who had walked and stole second. Christian Walker then launched his second homer of the season to make it 3-0.
Pfaadt didn’t allow a Rockies’ hitter to reach second base until the fifth inning, when he hit Michael Toglia with a pitch and Brenton Doyle followed with an infield single.
Two batters later, Jacob Stallings singled home Toglia to make it 3-1.
The Diamondbacks added two more runs right away, the first scoring on left fielder Nolan Jones’ fielder error and the other on Gurriel’s double.
Rockies starter Ryan Feltner (0-1) went five innings, charged with five runs (three earned) on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts. He also hit a batter.
Pfaadt (1-0) allowed five hits, one run, and no walks while striking out six. He also hit two batters.
Scott McGough went two innings and Ryan Thompson and Kevin Ginkel one apiece out of the Arizona bullpen. Ginkel struck out three of the four batters he faced in the ninth.
Jacob Bird (one inning) and Victor Vodnik (two innings) combined for three perfect innings in relief for Colorado.
The NL West rivals meet again for a three-game set in Colorado starting on April 8.
–Field Level Media