Arizona Diamondbacks 9, Detroit Tigers 6: Soroka Immaculate, bullpen less so

Change on 2025: -1. If there was ever the need for a palette cleanser, after the disappointing sweep in Los Angeles, it was in tonight’s home opener at Chase. Early on, the D-backs delivered in no uncertain fashion.

The offense matched the entire run production of the opening series in the first five innings. Meanwhile, Michael Soroka’s Diamondbacks debut was one of the best ever. He threw five shutout innings, striking out ten, which tied a career high.

Soroka finished things off in the fifth by throwing the fourth immaculate innings – nine pitches, nine strikes, three strikeouts – in franchise history, and the first for the D-backs since Wade Miley in 2012. Of course, the bullpen, in the form of Joe Ross and Ryan Thompson, did their best – with the help of the umpires – to throw an 8-0 lead away. Coincidentally, that score looks like the emoji for the face most of us were pulling over the course of the seventh inning, where the Tigers scored six runs.

But disaster was averted, with Juan Morillo, Taylor Clarke, and Paul Sewald retiring the final seven batters up, for what, in the end, turned out to be a drama-free first save for Sewald. The Diamondbacks won their home opener in front of a sold-out Chase Field, and got into the win column for the first time this year. Let’s start with Soroka, who only really had one black mark against him, and that comes in the area of efficiency.