Brandon Pfaadt’s latest gem and a key hit from “Tawa” lift the Diamondbacks past the Padres

Arizona defeated San Diego in a matchup that again turned on pitching, with Brandon Pfaadt providing the backbone of the Diamondbacks’ effort and “Tawa” adding late-game offensive lift. The central storyline was Pfaadt’s continuing rebound, framed by the way the Diamondbacks have found ways to turn his starts into wins as he has strung together multiple consecutive outings of dominance.

Pfaadt’s return to form has been measured in streaks and numbers. Yahoo Sports reported that the Diamondbacks won his seventh consecutive start since he came back from Reno, underscoring how his turnaround has not been a one-off but a sustained stretch. In this outing, he went 6.2 innings and allowed only an unearned run, a detail that speaks to both run prevention and the defensive plays that helped keep the damage limited.

The statistical picture has been equally striking. The report said Pfaadt entered the night with a 6-0 record during this run and a 1.55 ERA over 40.2 innings, with seven total earned runs allowed. That kind of sustained production matters in the way it stabilizes a rotation that can otherwise swing wildly from start to start during the grind of the second half.

Even with the win, Pfaadt’s overall results have had an element of “what might have been” attached to them. Yahoo Sports noted that his record should have been 7-0 if not for an earlier breakdown involving Pittsburgh’s Thompson/Sewald situation, positioning this run as one where unlucky context has slightly muted the won-loss outcome compared with the underlying performance.

Arizona’s broader trajectory has also been part of the context. The report placed the Diamondbacks at 60-53 for the season, with a “pace” of 86-76 and a “change on 2025” of plus six. Those markers do not automatically guarantee playoff positioning, but they do suggest the franchise is playing like a club that is trending in the right direction rather than hovering around.500 as summer turns.

For a historical comparison, the Yahoo Sports piece pointed to how rare this kind of run has been even within the modern Arizona rotation. It said Pfaadt’s seven-game-span ERA is the best by a Diamondbacks starter across any seven-game stretch since Zac Gallen posted a 1.16 ERA across 46.2 innings with six earned runs in April-May 2023. That comparison matters because it puts Pfaadt’s current stretch in the same neighborhood as the franchise’s more elite pitching seasons.

Looking ahead, the immediate question is whether Arizona can keep pairing pitching stability with timely offense. With Pfaadt continuing to deliver deep, low-scoring starts, the Diamondbacks can be more flexible with their bullpen usage and more confident about keeping games within reach late. For San Diego, the focus will be on limiting the kind of defensive-and-command-driven outcomes Arizona has produced during Pfaadt’s streak, especially as the teams move through the remainder of their head-to-head and divisional matchups.

The next time Arizona takes the field, Pfaadt’s workload and the consistency of the support around him will be the barometer. If the Diamondbacks can sustain even a portion of what they have achieved during his current run, the “resurrection” story that has carried through these starts becomes more than a midseason narrative and starts to resemble a real statement about how Arizona intends to compete.