Pfaadt was excellent against a Tampa Bay lineup loaded with left-handed batters. He retired the first five before a double and a base hit brought a run in for the Rays in the second inning. Pfaadt scattered three more base runners over four more scoreless frames, ending his day with five strikeouts. The 26-year-old right-hander will take a 2.76 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, and a 23/5 K/BB ratio across 29 1/3 innings into a start against the Braves in Arizona on Sunday.

It was nice to see the strikeouts finally come for Pfaadt after he’s had a great start to the season in terms of run prevention without missing many bats. Pfaadt can sometimes struggle to generate whiffs as predominantly a sinker-sweeper right-handed pitcher because the other team will often stack their lineup with left-handed batters and mostly neutralize those two offerings. The Marlins did just that in this game as seven of their nine hitters were lefties, but Pfaadt was able to cut through them with his changeup. While the pitch has been inconsistent in the past, Pfaadt has made a meaningful effort to incorporate more changeups in his game to have a better plan of attack against lefties and it worked here. He commanded it well low and out of the zone as it forced five whiffs and tons more ugly swings that produced weak contact. He’s scheduled to face the Rays in his next start.

Pfaadt notched just three strikeouts today, but he kept the Orioles in the yard and induced a couple of double play balls. Despite giving up four homers in his first two starts, he’s 2-1 with a 3.50 ERA, and he’ll get the Marlins next.

The right-hander punched out four batters on the day and didn’t allow a walk. He had a lot of trouble keeping the ball in the yard in this one, serving up a solo homer to CJ Abrams and a two-run shot to Luis Garcia Jr. in the opening inning and then a solo shot to Nathaniel Lowe in the sixth. Pfaadt got 15 swings and misses on 91 pitches on the night — five each on his changeup and curveball — while posting a CSW of 33 percent. Now 1-1, he’ll carry a 5.25 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and a 9/1 K/BB ratio (12 innings) into Wednesday’s battle against the Orioles.