LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Some days, you get shelled. Not just in baseball. In life.
Brandon Pfaadt, the Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher — Trinity High School, Bellarmine University, Louisville through and through — had one of those days over the weekend. He faced eight batters, didn’t get a single out, and gave up eight runs.
A start so bad it tied a National League record -- from 1948. A start so bad his own manager said he’d never seen anything like it. The blowback was brutal. "His ERA just got Pfaadt," one fan posted. Some media were calling it a "Yes-hitter."
Pfaadt, to his credit, didn’t duck it.
“What happened today was unacceptable,” he said. “I’ve got to flush it and move on.”
And that’s what makes this more than a bad day at the ballpark.
Pfaadt is having an All-Star-type season. He’s among the league co-leaders in wins. He’s been one of the few reliable arms in a Diamondbacks rotation that’s leaking oil. But sometimes, as they say, the game humbles you. And sometimes, it knocks you flat.
It’s what happens next that matters.
In the sea of podcasts out there, David Duchovny’s Fail Better (subscription needed for some episodes) is among my go-to programs. It’s about failure — big, small, public, private — and what we do with it. It’s an acknowledgement that we are shaped not just by our successes, but by our failures. It’s true for all of us. And it’s worth talking about.
There’s something powerful in hearing people talk openly about falling short. Not just failing, but failing forward. That’s what Pfaadt did after this one.
He stood there. Faced the questions. Answered for it. It’s more than most of us are called on to do. And he vowed to be better. He didn’t blame a pitch clock or a bad call. Just said he’d be ready the next time the ball was his.
He’s clearly a good pitcher. Just had a really bad day. One of those days he could find himself talking about for the rest of his life — not just because of what went wrong, but because of what it taught him.
At least, that's the hope. One more thing about setbacks -- it's how we respond to them that matters most.
Quick Sips
- In a curveball of another kind, Louisville baseball went from losing six of its past seven games heading into the NCAA Tournament to hosting an NCAA Super Regional – just two wins from the College World Series.
- Journalism was made a slight favorite over Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty when morning line odds for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes were announced. I don’t expect those odds to hold. Check out the post positions and odds here.
- If you missed yesterday’s “Coffee,” Louisville coach Dan McDonnell’s thoughts on his own hard times are worth a look. Read it here.
The Last Drop
“Omaha it is!”
The words Zion Rose texted McDonnell to tell him he’d be coming back to the team, after last year’s MLB Draft didn’t go his way. Now, he’s two games from making them a reality.
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