Diamondbacks in Salvage Mode to Avoid Sweep by Cardinals

The Arizona Diamondbacks will attempt to salvage the third game of their series against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday and avoid a sweep. First pitch is 11:15 a.m. MST, 1:15 p.m. CST.

The first two games were one run affairs in which St. Louis beat the D-backs 4-3 and 6-5. Both contests were similar in that the offense could not get much going against the Cardinals starting pitchers, scored late, but ultimately fell short.

There is light rain in the forecast for most of the afternoon, with eight to nine mile per hour winds forecast to be blowing straight in from center field.

Pitching Matchup

Brandon Pfaadt, RHP 7-3, 3.81 ERA, 5.00 FIP in 56.2 innings pitched. Pfaadt got his major league leading seventh win in his last start, beating the Dodgers. He allowed three runs in six innings, all three runs coming on solo homers. It was an odd outing as there was a lot of hard contact, and he did not strike out a single batter. But he only walked one and got plenty of early run support.

Pfaadt pitched at Busch Stadium once before, on April 22, 2024. He took a no-decision, going 5.1 innings and allowing two runs on two hits and three walks.

Sonny Gray, RHP 5-1, 4.02 ERA, 3.79 FIP in 56 innings pitched. Gray is in the second year of a three year $75 million contract. The 13 year veteran bounced back from a rough start against the Phillies, (3.2 IP, 7 earned runs), to toss six shutout innings against the Tigers May 19, picking up his fifth win.

While he's spent roughly two thirds of his career in the America league, it's still strange that he's only faced the Diamondbacks one prior time, and that came in 2015 with the Oakland A's. Gray throws 92 MPH sinkers and four seamers, along with a sweeper against righties and a big looping curveball and change ups against lefties as his out pitches.

Lineups