Fun fact: if you discount James McCann’s single inning of work, the Arizona bullpen now has an ERA of 3.81, better than the rotation’s figure of 4.03. Admittedly, I guess you could discount Ryne Nelson’s last start and reduce similarly – by an even larger amount, actually – the rotation ERA, getting it down to 3.40. We probably need to take the good with the bad. But Brandon Pfaadt’s outing certainly saved the bullpen after Nelson’s blow-up. It’s only the third time a D-backs reliever has thrown over six innings. One came in 2001, when Randy Johnson threw seven after Curt Schilling started, when a power outage in San Diego pushed the game to the next day. His 16 K’s is still the MLB record for reliever strikeouts, breaking a mark set in 1913.
However, the “legitimate” record is the 20 outs recorded by Vidal Nuño in 2015. Josh Collmenter got clobbered by the Nationals and left with one out in the second. Nuño took over and allowed two runs through the end of the eight. It was still an 11-1 loss, but again it helped save the bullpen. Vidal threw 105 pitches, eleven more than the Washington starter… Who was none other than Max Scherzer, the starter for Toronto in the game before Sunday’s blow-out. History not repeating itself, but certainly rhyming. In his six year career, Nuño had only a handful of starts where he threw more pitches. But in addition to RJ’s game (109 pitches), Braden Shipley threw more, tossing 108 in relief during a 2017 game in Minnesota.
Some health updates. You’ll note that Corbin Carroll is back, and should have no limitations, Torey Lovullo calling him “good to go.” Gabriel Moreno is eligible to come off the IL today, but it appears that won’t happen before the weekend series in Mexico City. He still needs to take full-blooded swings to confirm everything is good there. Finally, tidying up something from earlier in the week. Jack discovered that the unexpected return of Tommy Henry to the mound last week is because he did indeed only need the internal brace procedure, not full Tommy John, allowing for a quicker rehab. A.J. Puk had something similar, but it is his second operation. He said today he expects to go on a rehab assignment at the end of May.
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