D-Backs 6, Brewers 2: Revenge of the Homers

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - APRIL 29: Nolan Arenado #28 of the Arizona Diamondbacks hits a three-run home run against the Milwaukee Brewers during the fourth inning at American Family Field on April 29, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) | Getty Images I don’t think it’s a particularly hot take to say that I hate blackouts. They inherently limit the number of fans who can view their team and forces those fans to subscribe to a dizzying number of broadcast services just to watch the games.

It’s one of the reasons why I listed their elimination as my number one priority if I were magically granted the role of baseball commissioner for a day. I think it would fundamentally improve the game’s accessibility and by extension its popularity. This is a long-winded qualifier that I didn’t get to actually watch any of tonight’s game and instead had to piece it together by the Gameday feed and the Arizona radio.

It was still a fun game regardless of how it was consumed though as the D-Backs marched onto the same field on which they were shellacked last night and played a crisp team win that was badly needed to set up a rubber match tomorrow afternoon. To put it mildly, last night’s game was not a shining moment for the Arizona pitching staff, giving up 13 runs on 15 hits and walking an additional six batters. But with the new and improved Eduardo Rodriguez starting tonight and surprise staff ace Michael Soroka starting tomorrow, I felt pretty good coming into the game.

Unfortunately, Rodriguez continued his slide of reversion back towards his mean of the last two seasons in the desert rather than the excellent form he showed in the World Baseball Classic and the first three starts of this season. Once again, the veteran lefty struggled with his command, walking four batters and striking out just four while throwing a middling 55% of his 87 pitches for strikes and generating only five whiffs. Those kinds of numbers rarely equate to a good pitching performance and tonight was no exception as he had his shortest outing of the year, but was able to limit the damage from Milwaukee to just two runs.