Carroll's 5th-inning brilliance buoys D-backs' Game 1 victory

CLEVELAND -- Last season, Corbin Carroll won the NL Rookie of the Year Award thanks to an electric season with his bat and glove.

While this season hasn’t gone as smoothly for the 23-year-old, his showing in the fifth inning of Arizona’s 7-3 win in Game 1 of Wednesday's doubleheader at Progressive Field showed why his future is still as bright as any players in the Majors.

First there was his impact with the bat. With the D-backs already leading 2-0, Carroll launched a moonshot home run to right field that doubled Arizona’s lead against Guardians starter Ben Lively.

While the homer traveled just a Statcast-projected 349 feet (his shortest home run this year), it had a launch angle of 33 degrees, which allowed for it to carry out just enough to sneak over the right field wall. After hitting just three home runs across his first 92 games this season, Carroll’s now left the park six times in his last 18 games -- a span in which he has a .917 OPS.

“We revolve around him,” said D-backs starter Brandon Pfaadt. “He’s had his struggles, but regardless … we’re playing ball around him. He’s able to do it on both sides of the plate and that speaks volumes to the type of player he is.”

And then there was his glove. After already breaking through for two runs in the inning, the Guardians looked primed to do more damage when they had runners on second and third with only one out against Pfaadt.

But then Carroll made an impact.

Pfaadt got Bo Naylor to hit a pop fly to short right field that initially looked like it was going to fall between Carroll and second baseman Ketel Marte. But, at the last minute, Carroll went down to a knee to make a sliding catch before popping up and firing an 85.5 mph strike to home plate to nab Daniel Schneemann for the final out of the inning.

It was his fifth-hardest throw this year, and Statcast ranked it in the 90th percentile.

That inning was the only time Pfaadt stumbled, as he opened with four perfect innings before responding from the rough fifth inning with a scoreless sixth inning before retiring Lane Thomas in the seventh.

“They’re a good team,” Pfaadt said. “We limited damage but they got one hit and got momentum on their side.”

He now has a 2.66 ERA over his last seven starts for the surging D-backs.

“I felt great and [catcher] Jose Herrera called a great game so we were able to move the ball around the plate well and be aggressive and give them pitches to get themselves out on,” he said. “We were able to set the tone.”