Brandon McCarthy had his best start since returning from Tommy John surgery, and his longest, too, which was a good sign for the Dodgers on Saturday night against the Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
McCarthy ended up in the same rough pitch range as his previous two starts, matching his last outing with 77 pitches. Only on Saturday, he made that stretch through six scoreless innings, with eight strikeouts and no walks. McCarthy threw 55 of his 77 pitches for strikes.
"The pitch count is going to slowly evolve, and I'll get into the lineup a few more times. It's something that will slowly evolve. I want to make sure to maximize innings, maximize efficiency," McCarthy said after the game, as seen on SportsNet LA. "Getting through six is encouraging. You'd like to start going into seven and eight when you're pitching well. That's going to come with a little bit of time."
D-backs 2, Dodgers 1
D-backs 2, Dodgers 1
McCarthy only allowed three hits in his third start, and two were erased by a pickoff and caught stealing,respectively.
It came against one of his old teams, the Diamondbacks, for whom he pitched a season and a half, in 2013-2014. Arizona was the only major league team McCarthy hadn't faced in his career, before Saturday.
Since returning from Tommy John surgery, McCarthy has faced 58 batters and struck out 22 of them, a whopping 37.9 percent, which goes a long way in explaining his 1.69 ERA in 16 innings.
Up next
Kenta Maeda gets the call for the Dodgers going for the series win in Sunday's series finale, while the Diamondbacks will counter with left-hander Robbie Ray in the 1:10 p.m. PT start on getaway day.