Diamondbacks Dominated the Cardinals in Every Facet for Series Sweep

The Arizona Diamondbacks played a near-perfect series, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals this weekend in front of over 102,000 fans.

They outscored St. Louis 22-7 and got their record back to an even .500 at 50-50 in the process. They remain 4.5 games out of the NL Wild Card, however. These are the three main takeaways:

Eugenio Suarez has taken over the team leadership role

Eugenio Suarez is having an amazing season, and that continued this series. He went 5-for-10 and homered twice on both Saturday and Sunday.

He drove in seven runs, taking over the MLB lead in RBI with 85, two ahead of Cal Raleigh. He also leads Shohei Ohtani in the NL home run race, 35 to 34.

Suarez has also clearly stepped forward in the clubhouse, making a statement. He doesn't want to leave Arizona, and is doing everything in his power to push the team to victory so that he won't be traded at the deadline.

Over his last 162 games, Suarez has hit 279/.335/.605, with 55 homers and 138 RBI. It is a truly remarkable turnaround for a player that was close to being replaced by Jordan Lawlar at third base in June of last year.

The D-backs went with their three best starting pitchers

Much was made of the Diamondbacks rearranging their rotation, and pushing Zac Gallen and Eduardo Rodriguez to the Houston Astros series that starts on Monday.

Torey Lovullo tried to explain the move as matchup-dependent, and something they looked at from a long-term view.

That ran completely counter to the immediate reality faced. The Diamondbacks absolutely had to come out firing and try to sweep the Cardinals to have any hope to avoid being sellers at the trade deadline.

Their three best pitchers at the moment gave them that chance. Brandon Pfaadt threw seven shutout innings, dominating the Cardinals by allowing just four hits and not walking a batter.

Ryne Nelson followed with a six-inning, one-run start, and Merrill Kelly threw six innings as well. In total that's three quality starts, 19 innings, and just three runs allowed.

That made it possible for Torey Lovullo to use long relievers for most of the series, and they picked up eight innings, allowing only four runs, never letting the Cardinals back in the games.

Shades of 2023-style baseball returned

The style of play that put the Diamondbacks on the map in the second half of 2022 and throughout the 2023 season has seemed somewhat elusive at times in 2024 and 2025.

But this series saw a balanced attack and approach to the game. It wasn't all about Suarez's home runs.

If Suarez is the engine of the offense at the moment, Corbin Carroll is the spark plug, and Geraldo Perdomo is the oil that makes it all run smooth.

Carroll hit three triples in the series, including leadoff three-baggers on both Saturday and Sunday. He also stole a base on Sunday. Perdomo went 6-for-13 in the series, all singles, drove in seven runs, and stole two bases.

But it wasn't just about the offense. The D-backs committed just one error in the series, a throwing error by Perdomo. There were several outstanding plays, none more so than Alek Thomas' amazing catch as he banged against the wall on Friday night.