Can Brandon Pfaadt Help Deliver a Victory for the Diamondbacks?

The Arizona Diamondbacks host the San Diego Padres Saturday night at Chase Field at 5:10 PM local time. It is Bobblehead night as the D-backs give out a Gold Glove removable mask Gabriel Moreno Bobblehead to the first 20,000 fans. The D-backs are honoring Moreno with his first ever bobblehead after his first Gold Glove win last season and being the first ever catcher for the D-backs to win one.

The Padres blasted the D-backs 7-1 last night as they got to Slade Cecconi in the fourth and fifth innings for five runs and Dylan Cease held the offense to just one run. The Padres are 17-18 and sit 4.5 games behind the Dodgers while being in second place in the NL West. The D-backs are 14-19 and are 6.5 games back of L.A. Full standings here.

The D-backs have scored just one run in their last 18 innings while losing by a combined margin of 15-1. Eight of those came across Monday and Tuesday against the Dodgers. They've lost seven of their last 10 games. Meanwhile, the Padres have won three straight games and are 4-6 in their last 10 games.

Brandon Pfaadt, RHP: 1-1, 4.63 ERA, 3.51 FIP in 35 innings

Brandon Pfaadt encountered a couple of speed bumps against the Cardinals and Braves earlier this season, but otherwise, he's been quite good for the D-backs. The rotation has badly needed his pitching this year as it's missing Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez.

Pfaadt's last start against the Mariners was terrific. He pitched six innings, gave up just two runs on five hits, and struck out a career high 11 batters. In fact, he has struck out 21 batters over his last 18.1 innings. That's all while allowing just 13 hits and six earned runs. As his FIP indicates, he's been much better than what the results show. His xWOBA is just .284, far lower than MLB average of .316.

While he does run into issues locating his sweeper and hanging it, opponents have just an .xBA of .201 against it. Meanwhile, his four seamer has been lethal with hitters hitting just .143 against it. They have crushed his sinker and changeup with batting averaged over .300, but the expected numbers show that it's been a tad bit of bad luck for Pfaadt as hitters should be hitting much worse against it.

Michael King, RHP: 2-3, 5.00 ERA, 6.27 FIP in 36 innings

Michael King was the headliner piece in the trade return for Juan Soto, but so far, he has failed to live up to the price the Padres paid in his first full-season as a starting pitcher. The former closer has struggled with the long-ball as he already has given up 10 homers, which leads all of MLB. King has given up 32 hits, 25 runs, an eye-popping 21 walks, and has struck out 40 in his 36 innings. While he has lethal strikeout ability, he's failed to locate his pitches the majority of the time.

King has been hit or miss this season. Of his seven games and six starts, King has lasted 7+ innings twice and not gone 6 innings in any of the other outings. Since his no-hit bid against the Brewers in which he pitched 7.2 innings of one-run, 10 strikeout ball, King has been hammered. Over his last two starts, King has last just nine total innings and given up 14 hits, 12 runs, six walks, and struck out 11. He's given four homers during that span. The D-backs will hope this trend continues for tonight's game.

King's underlying stats indicate that his performance matches the results. The xSLG of .486 is 80 points higher than MLB average while his xWOBA of .357 is far higher than the average of .315 across MLB. Michael King throws a four seamer that averages 93.2 mph 28% of the time. He mixes in a changeup (24.2%), sinker (21.4%), and sweeper (20%) with an occasional slider (6.4%) the rest of the time. His changeup and sweeper have been excellent, holding hitters to just a .156/.154 batting average, respectively. But, his sinker and four seamer have been hit hard. The four seamer has been slugged to a .595 number while the sinker has been hit .333 with a slug of .926. Those are the pitches that D-backs hitters will have to hunt and wait for.

Both bullpens for the Padres and D-backs should be ready to go. While Justin Martinez and Scott McGough might be down, the best of the bullpen is ready to pitch. The same is true for San Diego, including their elite closer, Robert Suarez.

Starting Lineup

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has hit a homer off of King in his career and has a .231 batting average over 13 at-bats against him. Blaze Alexander is back in at shortstop. He will look to get his bat going again as he has hit just .188 with five walks to two strikeouts over his last seven games.

Moreno starts on his bobblehead day and fans will be hoping for an excellent outing from him. He needs it too as he has just two hits in his last 18 at-bats although he's only struck out three times and has walked twice.

Manager Torey Lovullo said that Corbin Carroll is starting to turn the corner at the plate and there has been some evidence such as his down-the-line double the other day and some hard hit outs, but the results still aren't there. He's hitting just .125 with only one walk to seven strikeouts in his last seven games. He'll continue to hit in the bottom third of the lineup until he starts getting some results.

Christian Walker will look to stay hot as he has hit .304/.393/.739 over the last seven games and has three homers, five RBI, four walks, and seven strikeouts during that span. He's been the life of the offense as he awaits his teammates to get hot again with him.

Padres Lineup

Luis Arraez has joined the Padres thanks to a trade with the Marlins and is in the lineup tonight at DH. Manny Machado is back at third base. He's been the DH for most of the season for the Padres. The Padres leading hitter, Jurickson Profar has been dropped to 5th in order.