Ethan Pecko entered his fifth inning Saturday unscored upon but with a reliever warming behind him in the Houston Astros' bullpen. Three batters later, his outing ended. Tim Tawa cued an infield hit into an open right side. Pecko pounced on a Ryan Waldschmidt tapper before Lars Nootbaar lined a clean single.
Nootbaar occupied the leadoff spot in the Diamondbacks' lineup and was facing Pecko for a third time in the game. His single put the potential tying run on base, brought manager Joe Espada out to remove his starter and reinforced an issue within Houston's rotation with 19 games left in a postseason race.
Two of five starters the Astros are deploying - Cristian Javier and Pecko, the right-handed prospect - are under tighter reins, with Houston hesitant to have them face opposing lineups a third time. Javier hasn't faced more than 19 batters in any of his past four outings, one of which he pitched in bulk relief.
Having three starters who will work deeper - Hunter Brown, Peter Lambert and Hayden Wesneski - can mitigate that usage somewhat. But it puts added pressure on those starters to cover innings and protect the bullpen, and on the bullpen to shoulder a significant workload at least two out of five (or six) days.
How sustainable that is down the stretch, for a club with a three-game division lead and 19 games left in the regular season, is a question. The bullpen has been arguably the Astros' biggest strength, yet it's also at less than full capacity, even with expanded rosters offering an extra spot on the pitching staff.

#starters #javier #right

In the penultimate game of playing 13 straight days, a shorthanded Houston Astros bullpen could not protect a lead. A chance to pad their division lead Saturday slipped away as a result.
Gabriel Moreno gave the Arizona Diamondbacks a go-ahead single in the 10th inning. The Astros went scoreless after the fifth, falling 4-3 in the middle game of a series at Daikin Park.
Houston lost for just the fourth time in 58 games this season when leading after six innings. It carried a 3-1 lead into the seventh. Lars Nootbaar halved the lead with an RBI double. Ketel Marte erased it with his 22nd home run in the eighth.
Jose Altuve was stranded after a one-out double in the bottom of the eighth. Josh Hader entered a tied game in the ninth and retired the side with 10 pitches. After the Astros went quietly in their half, Hader did not return for a second inning. He has worked multiple innings twice in 40 outings this season.
Bryan King drew the **** ignment, the left-hander's first outing since being recalled from Triple-A. Moreno served a one-out single to score Arizona's extra-innings runner. King allowed no further damage.

#innings #houston #moreno #hader

DIAMONDBACKS
GIANTS
Lars Nootbaar – DH
Jonah ***** – CF
Corbin Carroll – RF

#diamondbacks #nootbaar #corbin

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Lars Nootbaar hit a pinch grand slam in the seventh inning and Merrill Kelly threw seven shutout innings to help the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Francisco Giants 7-1 on Saturday in the first game of a day-night doubleheader.
Kelly (9-12) limited the Giants to two hits in those seven innings. He struck out seven and walked four.
San Francisco's best scoring opportunity came in the fourth. With runners at the corners and one out, Turner Hill hit a grounder to second. Ildemaro Vargas' throw to the plate cut down Bryce Eldridge. Kelly then got Drew Cavanaugh on another grounder.
Making his third start in the majors, left-hander Matt "Tugboat" Wilkinson held the Diamondbacks scoreless on three hits through six innings and retired 11 batters in a row from the second inning through the fifth.
Listed at 6-foot-1, 250 pounds, Wilkinson issued his only two walks to open the seventh. Ryan Walker then replaced Wilkinson (0-2).

#diamondbacks #hits

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Lars Nootbaar homered to center on the first pitch of the game and had three of Arizona's 12 hits to help the Diamondbacks beat the San Francisco Giants 10-6 on Friday night.
Arizona moved a half-game back of San Diego for the third wild-card spot in the National League.
Nootbaar's home run was his fifth of the season and one of three hit by the Diamondbacks off Blade Tidwell. Corbin Carroll took Tidwell (0-1) deep to center in the third inning for a two-run homer that put Arizona on top 3-2. It was Carroll's 19th home run of the season.
With two outs in the third, Tim Tawa launched a three-run shot to left off Tidwell to increase the Diamondbacks' lead to 6-2.
The Giants got a solo homer in the first inning and an RBI double in the third from Bryce Eldridge. The rookie has 15 home runs this season.

#home #arizona #center

DIAMONDBACKS
GIANTS
Lars Nootbaar – DH
Drew Gilbert – RF
Corbin Carroll – RF

#gilbert

I've talked before about the idea of a "stopper" as a pitcher in a starting rotation who can halt a losing streak by at least giving their team a chance to win. In my mind, it's a separate idea from a starting pitching ace who might be expected to have a wholly different level of pitching production. If there was ever a team in desperate need of a "stopper" performance, it would be the Diamondbacks at this point in the season. Even after a series win in Atlanta over the weekend, they have come into Boston and gotten knocked around on both sides of the ball by allowing a combined 20 runs in the first two games and scoring just five in response. We've seen over the past two years how important each win can be – especially in a National League Wild Card that is incredibly tight and also has seen the D-Backs drop back in – so avoiding a sweep was absolutely necessary. And that's to say nothing of the cloud of uncertainty hanging over Ketel Marte's status for the remainder of the season. This afternoon certainly wasn't pretty, but the team did manage to accomplish the mission.
While Brandon Pfaadt may not necessarily pop off the page as a "stopper," he has been one of the reasons for the team's surge over the past month or so. He's pitched to an absurd 1.22 ERA (2.56 FIP) over his last seven starts going back to July 10th – which coincides nearly exactly with the last time the team was .500 or worse. One of the keys to that success: Pfaadt hadn't allowed a home run since his first start back from Reno, a stretch of 49.1 IP. So naturally, he allowed three home runs on the day – a pair of solo shots and a three-run shot that ended his start. The first of those solo shots from Nick Sogard in fact came on the very first pitch of the game – a 93 MPH center-center fastball that Sogard launched for his very first career homer. He nearly repeated the feat when Jarren Duran launched the first pitch he saw of the third inning into the stands, but this one was an elevated fastball instead of center cut. And finally, Pfaadt was victimized by the seemingly unstoppable Mickey Gaspar who homered for the third straight game, although this roundtripper was a three-run instead of a solo shot that tied the game and ended Pfaadt's night.
Even as Pfaadt was being pecked to death by solo home runs, the Arizona offense looked pretty ineffectual the first time through the lineup with three hits and a walk. Their best scoring opportunity in the third was snuffed out when Jose Fernandez elected to try and score on a slow bouncer to third base and was easily tagged out. Thankfully, they rebounded to rally in the fifth and sixth innings to take the lead. In the former, they had consecutive doubles from Fernandez and Ryan Waldschmidt as well as a huge two-run double from Gabriel Moreno that bounced off the Green Monster and plated both Waldschmidt and Corbin Carroll. Then in the sixth, Torey Lovullo decided to pinch hit Lars Nootbaar for Jordan Lawlar (who is clearly still gett

Ketel Marte was placed on the restricted list by the Arizona Diamondbacks ahead of their matchup against the Boston Red Sox on Monday, Aug. 17.
The team shared the news on X that they were placing the three-time All-Star on the restricted list minutes before the game. They also announced that they recalled infielder José Fernández from Triple-A Reno. Fernández was listed as a third baseman and in seventh position on the batting lineup, which was posted shortly after the roster moves.
Nick Piecoro, the Diamondbacks beat reporter for The Arizona Republic, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, posted on X that Marte did not show up to Fenway Park for the game. He reported that the star infielder was in town with the team and was supposed to be the designated hitter for the series opener, noting that "Ketel Marte is doing OK physically, he just didn't show up to the ballpark tonight."
Lars Nootbaar took Marte's place in the Diamondbacks' lineup as the designated hitter.

#diamondbacks #arizona #list

Don't like your team very much this season? Just wait a week.
So it goes in the slog known as the 2026 Major League Baseball season, where ****** ody's really out of it and anyone can get back in it just by winning a few games.
This week's example? The St. Louis Cardinals.
They dealt away starter Dustin May and reliever JoJo Romero and respected outfielder Lars Nootbaar at the trade deadline and promptly won four consecutive series and eight of their past 12 games. That's lifted them above .500 and within three games of a playoff spot.
Talk about addition by, well, addition: Nootbaar's trade helped open some ****** e for rookie Joshua Báez, who merely had the greatest debut in major league history. Phenom? He is now, it seems.

#season #trade #cardinals

Sometimes you roll snake eyes and the Atlanta Braves very nearly did end up doing so against the Snakes, themselves. The Arizona Diamondbacks may have been coming into town following a series loss to the Colorado Rockies (in Arizona, mind you) but they were entering this series with two monsters getting starts for them in their rotation. Brandon Pfaadt and Eduardo Rodriguez have both been lights-out recently and Michael Soroka has also been very solid as well.
As such, this wasn't going to be an easy task for the Braves — especially after they completed the monumental task of finally beating the New York Mets in a three-game series. As such, a bit of a letdown was always on the cards and that's what happened in this particular series. Fortunately, some timely hitting from one of baseball's top power hitters helped Atlanta avert a disastrous sweep. Let's get into how everything went down over the weekend, shall we?
So this was one of those games where there wasn't much the Braves could do — the Diamondbacks and their pitching was just too much to handle. Brandon Pfaadt has been on a heater since late-July, as he hasn't given up an earned run since the first inning of his start against the Cardinals back on July 22 — and funnily enough, his current teammate Lars Nootbaar was the one who brought in that run against him.
Anyways, Pfaadt was absolutely nightmarish for the Braves to deal with and this one was essentially set in stone once Arizona managed to take advantage of some shaky defense from Atlanta in the first inning in order to plate the only run that Chris Sale ended up surrendering. Once Pfaadt was done, Arizona called upon both Juan Morillo and Brandyn Garcia to finish things off and they've both been lights out on the road lately so the Braves were essentially walking into a snake pit (for lack of a better term) in this situation. Atlanta only mustered up three hits and this was pure dominance from Arizona's pitching staff.
Chris Sale was excellent, as usual, it must be noted. Despite the fact that the Braves once again had a tough time dealing with the other team's top guy in this matchup, Sale remained upbeat about things and even expressed a bit of excitement about matchups like this when I asked him about it after the game. "You take this one on the chin," explained Sale. "What these guys have done throughout the year and what they're going to continue to do, you certainly don't expect that. But it happens — I've had blow-up starts where I'm sure they thought they were going to get six innings of one-run ball and it's not. We pick each other up and we keep moving forward."

#arizona #going

I hope you all will forgive me for spending a portion of my Saturday mornings sorting through various somewhat bleak baseball things in preparation for the coming recap. For instance, today I found myself roaming around looking at the recent game logs for Harrison Grant Holmes and comparing them those of Eduardo Rodriguez (Holmes had a better run recently, at least until today), and then looking at how the Braves as a team hit versus left-handed pitching (10th in the majors, as opposed to 8th vs. right-handers). The Diamondbacks, incidentally, are 2nd in the majors facing lefties, at least in terms of OPS, which was nice to see. But Grant Holmes is not a lefty, so I scrolled down to see how we do against righties, and discovered the rather depressing fact that we rank 29th in the majors in OPS against right-handed pitching. I tend to try to look for something interesting that I could touch on and organize my thinking around, in case a Saturday game goes badly for us, as it feels like they often do.
Anyway. As it turns out, I didn't really need to, though it certainly didn't look like it was going to be that way in the early going. Holmes caught leadoff man Lars Nootbaar looking to start off the game, then got Corbin Carroll to pop out on the infield and Geraldo Perdomo to strike out swinging on three pitches to make short work of the Snakes in the top of the first. Everyone's favorite hologram then came on for the bottom of the frame and gave up hits to the first three batters he faced: a home run to absolutely straightaway center field to Ronald Acuña, Jr., followed by a double to Drake Baldwin and a maddening bloop single just behind shortstop that fell in and advanced Baldwin to third. ERod finally recorded his first out on an Ozzie Albies pop fly to shallow right, but Baldwin crossed the plate on a grounder to second. That wound up being all the damage done, but we were already in a hole and Rodriguez had already thrown 24 pitches. 2-0 Atlanta
Given our dismal 0 for 14 performance last night with runners in scoring position, and given how easily Holmes had disposed of the top of our lineup in the top of the first, it seemed like we were in a very deep hole. But the bottom two thirds of the lineup, perhaps shamed by yesterday's aforementioned dismal performance, were having none of it today. Gabriel Moreno drewa five-pitch walk to lead things off, and was promptly advanced to third by a Max Kepler double into the alley in right center that rolled to the wall. Nolan Arenado grounded out slowly to third, allowing Moreno to score. Then Tim Tawa grounded a single to left, driving in Kepler and tying things back up. But we weren't done! Ildemaro Vargas, starting at second today due to Ketel Marte's gimpy knee, rolled over to second for the second out, but then Ryan Waldschmidt hit an opposite field liner to right that dropped for a single and scored Tawa from second. 3-2 DBACKS
And it was basically off to the races after that. ERod surrendered a

There was no hangover for the Diamondbacks after their low-scoring series victory over the Dodgers. Indeed, the offense nearly matched the entire output there, in just the first four outs. That provided a nice, soft landing for Michael Soroka, in his return from the injured list, as he threw 4.1 scoreless innings, before being removed for pitch count purposes. Zack Littell made his D-backs debut, and was awarded the win for his 4.2 innings of relief. Arizona simply took care of business tonight at Chase Field, and as a result remain tied with the Phillies for the second wild-card spot, since Philadelphia also won, in St. Louis.
Before this season, the Diamondbacks had hit only five first inning grand-slams in team history – that's over a span north of 4,400 opening frames. The last came more than fifteen years ago, in April 2011, when Stephen Drew took Ryan Dempster deep. But the team has now done it twice this year, with Nolan Arenado the man responsible on both occasions. Amusingly, he has a Rockies appeal to thank for it. With two outs, Gabriel Moreno hit a triple that rattled around in the right-field corner. It looked he then scored on a wild pitch, but Colorado appealed, saying it hit Marte. A review confirmed this, so Gabi was sent back and Ketel took first. But instead of getting out of the frame, Lars Nootbaar drew a walk, which allowed Arenado to come up with the bases loaded. Just like on May 18 against Robbie Ray, this then happened.
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Arizona put up another crooked number in the second inning. With one out, Ryan Waldschmidt singled, Geraldo Perdomo walked, and Corbin Carroll doubled home Waldschmidt for a 5-0 lead. A wild pitch added another run, and Marte drove in one more with a single. Through two innings, Arizona were 7-0 up, and they had made Colorado starter Gabriel Hughes throw 63 pitches. With Soroka having allowed one walk and no hits through two, it was a bit of a surprise that it was the D-backs starter who was the first to be replaced. Part of this was the Arizona offense taking a bit of a nap for the next few innings. Also, this was Soroka's first outing in the majors since June 19. He had only one rehab start, throwing 57 pitches for the Reno Aces.
Therefore, while it would have been nice to get him through five and qualify for the victory, a fairly long fourth inning (needing 22 pitches) put the dampers on that. After getting the first out in the fifth, Soroka threw an 8-pitch walk, and Torey Lovullo decided that was enough, at a total of 77 pitches. The final line: 4.1 shutout innings, on three hits and three walks with four strikeouts. Under normal circumstances, this might have been a bit of a problem. But new guy Zack Littell had been signed for exactly this, and had no pitch count limitation. He didn't make a great first impression, walking the first batter he faced on four pitches. However, he immediately dialed up a double-play to end the fifth. The DP was Arizona's friend tonight, with four being tu

PADRES
DIAMONDBACKS
Fernando Tatis – 2B
Lars Nootbaar – LF
Luis Rengifo – LF

#Padres #diamondbacks #nootbaar

The Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday, Aug. 4, were set to introduce outfielder Lars Nootbaar, whom they acquired in a trade-deadline deal with the St. Louis Cardinals.
In exchange for the 28-year-old left-handed-hitting Nootbaar, the Diamondbacks gave up Double-A pitchers Daniel Eagen and Sandro Santana along with a player to be named later.
Nootbaar is in the lineup as the designated hitter for Tuesday night's game, hitting sixth.
Nootbaar is hitting just .234/.333/.354 overall but has a .258/.354/.383 line against right-handers. In his career, he owns a .764 OPS with a .341 on-base against righties. His season started late after he underwent surgeries on both of his heels last offseason.
"He missed a lot of time, I know that," manager Torey Lovullo said a day earlier. "So hopefully he hasn't hit his stride yet. And when he comes here, he will."

#diamondbacks #lars

Thursday's afternoon game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs can be described with two words: missed opportunities. Runners in scoring position not realized would be a problem for both the Cardianls and Cubs. Andre Pallante kept the Cubs relatively quiet, but would he get enough offensive support for a win? So many questions.
The St. Louis Cardinals were the first to score Thursday in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Lars Nootbaar and Masyn Winn drew one-out walks. That brought up Bryan Torres who singled to left scoring Nootbaar and giving the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead. That run would unfortunately be all St. Louis could manage in the bottom of the 2nd as Blaze Jordan and Nathan Church left runners in scoring position.
The Chicago Cubs tied the game in the top of the 4th inning when Alex Bregman slammed a one-out double. He would score when Lars Nootbaar forgot there was only one out when Ian Happ flew out to right allowing Bregman to score. File this under mistakes the St. Louis Cardinals cannot afford to make, but stuff happens and that tied the game at 1-1.
Both the Cardinals and Cubs would have opportunities to score in the middle innings, but no results until the top of the 7th inning when Dansby Swanson drew a one-out walk. That would end Andre Pallante's day. By the way, if you didn't see Masyn Winn's play in the top of the 7th inning on a ball to deep short, it might be his best play of the year so far.
George Soriano would enter the game and be greeted by Swanson stealing second base. After Pete Crow-Armstrong struck out (a moment all of Cardinals Nation enjoys), Suzuki walked followed by a two-out single by Michael Busch scoring Swanson and giving the Cubs a brief 2-1 lead. Very brief.

#inning #Chicago

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Seiya Suzuki, Ian Happ and Nico ***** ner drove in two runs apiece and the Chicago Cubs jumped out to a seven-run lead after two innings on the way to a 10-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.
Happ punctuated an 11-pitch at-bat with a two-run double to get the Cubs' scoring started. Pete Crow-Armstrong's sacrifice fly scored Michael Conforto and Suzuki added a double. Michael Busch and ***** ner added RBI singles to make it 7-0, chasing Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy.
McGreevy (4-9) lasted 1 2/3 innings and gave up eight hits and seven earned runs. He walked two and struck out two as the Cardinals lost their third straight game.
Alec Burleson walked and Lars Nootbaar and Masyn Winn singled as the Cardinals loaded the bases in the fourth. Burelson scored on a sacrifice fly by Nathan Church. Winn hit a ground-rule double that plated the Cardinals' second run of the game in the ninth.
Pedro Ramírez had an infield single that scored ***** ner in the fifth. Suzuki added an RBI single in the eighth, and Carson Kelly drove in a run with a single in the ninth as the Cubs banged out a total of 17 hits.

#hoerner #scored #single

Trying to describe what happened when the St. Louis Cardinals played a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs Tuesday night is like trying to explain what it looked like when you see a dumpster on fire. It wasn't pretty, but it happened so let's begin.
The Chicago Cubs made St. Louis Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy look like a batting practice pitcher. It started out promising enough (for the first out, anyway) when Pete Crow-Armstrong struck out gloriously. From there, it was downhill at blazing speed. I'll keep this as brief as possible. Suzuki singled. Two batters later, Bregman hit a ground rule double then Ian Happ hit a double which made it 2-0 Cubs before most of the Busch Stadium crowd had even taken their seat.
The top of the 2nd inning was worse. So much worse. Conforto singled. Kelly walked. Two batters later, PCA hit a sacrifice fly then Suzuki doubled, Busch singled, Bregman singled, Happ walked, then Nico ******* ner singled to right. By the time the carnage was over, it was 7-0 Cubs. Even the all-you-can-eat Busch Stadium food deal isn't enough to redeem this type of experience. Michael McGreevy didn't even finish the 2nd inning. That was Gordon Graceffo's job and, to his credit, he kept the Cubs from piling on any more runs until he was replaced by Justin Bruihl in the top of the 5th inning.
The Cardinals would manage to scrounge around for a run in the bottom of the 4th inning when they loaded the bases with an Alec Burleson walk, a Nootbaar infield single, a Masyn Winn single and a Nathan Church sacrifice fly with the bases loaded slightly reducing the humiliation making it 7-1 Cubs.
The Cubs were determined to squash whatever faint hopes the Cardinals might have managed with that menial 1-run bottom of the 4th by grabbing another run in the top of the 5th inning when Nico ******* ner walked then stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch by Justin Bruihl and then scored on an infield single from Ramirez restoring the 7-run lead making it 8-1 Chicago. The Cubs added another run in the top of the 8th to make it 9-1 and another in the top of the 9th to make it 10-1, but who really cares? Oh, the Cardinals did add a run in the bottom of the 9th inning when Masyn Winn doubled in Lars Nootbaar who had walked to make the final score 10-2, but we still don't care.

#even

Jordan Walker is a tough subject for Cardinals fans 2024-2025. The outfield, outside of stalwart Lars Nootbaar, had been a barren place. Jordan Walker was to at least partially fill the void from the lack of reinforcements after the tragic death of Oscar Taveras. He impressed with the bat as a rookie, and then went missing in action 2024 – 2025. Walker was expected to do much fron the begining.
Jordan Walker was born in Stone Mountain, GA in 2002. Jordan was selected 21st overall in the 2020 draft and is now 24 years old, signed through 2026. What will happen is anyone's guess.
Accolades and Accomplishments
Selected in the first round of the 2020 MLB draft, 21st overall
1st player born in 2002 to debut in MLB, making the 2023 Opening Day roster at under 21 years of age

The Cardinals coming off a doubleheader sweep at the hands of these same Milwaukee Brewers, and an overall 4-game losing streak faced yet another left-hander tonight in Kyle Harrison. He was not particularly sharp, giving up booming doubles to Jordan and Burleson that resulted in RBI along with a solo HR to Jose Fermin.
On the other side of the ledger, birthday boy (26) Michael McGreevy was very sharp. Arguably among one of the best games he has pitched as a big leaguer. Alec Burleson helped that along with a late 2-run HR to extend the lead to 5-0. The Brewers break thru against Gastelum for a single rally, but the Cards win 5-1.
Harrison for the Brewers (a lefty) and a well-rested Michael McGreevy start tonight on the ***** p.
A right leaning line-up tonight features Winn leading off (JJW gets a day), followed by Herrera (DH), Walker, Velazquez (LF), Burleson, Fermin (2b), Jordan (3b) and Nootbaar (CF).
Interesting to take such a sub-optimal defense alignment to try and squeeze out a little offense with a pitch-to-contact pitcher.

Cardinals finally get the reinforcement they've been desperately missing originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The St. Louis Cardinals have spent weeks searching for answers. Now, one of their most important players is on the verge of returning.
After completing the final day of his rehab ****** ignment with Triple-A Memphis on Wednesday, Lars Nootbaar is expected to rejoin the Cardinals on Friday against the Cincinnati Reds, according to manager Oliver Marmol. The timing couldn't be much better for a club that has repeatedly struggled to capitalize on scoring opportunities and has watched its offense leave runners stranded at an alarming rate.
And if Nootbaar's final rehab game was any indication, he may be arriving just in time to change the entire conversation around this lineup.
The Cardinals wanted to see Nootbaar handle back-to-back games and play full defensive workloads before activating him. He responded by doing much more than that.

Lars Nootbaar this season:

- 7 HRs
- .346 wOBA
- 51.0% Hard-hit rate
ZT_Sports
is taking Nootbaar (+400) + two other hitters to go yard tonight: https://dkng.co/44LwbeK

https://dkng.co/44LwbeK