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Brandon Pfaadt will have a lot to prove when he takes the mound on Thursday afternoon while trying to help the Arizona Diamondbacks complete a three-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves.

The Diamondbacks, who beat the Braves 8-3 on Tuesday and 2-1 on Wednesday, haven’t swept a set in Atlanta since 2019.

Pfaadt (7-4, 5.05 ERA) is coming off the worst start of his career. He failed to retire a batter against the Washington Nationals on Saturday, getting tagged for eight runs on six hits and two hit batters. It shot his ERA up more than a point from 3.90 to 5.05.

“What happened was unacceptable,” Pfaadt said. “We just didn’t execute pitches. It’s tough, but kind of have to flush it and move on and do everything in my power to not let that happen again.”

Pfaadt will face Atlanta’s Grant Holmes (3-4, 3.78) in the final game between the teams this year. Arizona leads the season series 3-2.

Arizona manager Torey Lovullo believes Pfaadt’s rough outing was just a bump in the road, and he has confidence in the 26-year-old right-hander.

“Just some center-cut misses, yanked sliders, just real inconsistent with his stuff,” Lovullo said. “I don’t care if they’re left- or right-handed hitters, when he’s on and he’s throwing the ball where he wants to, he’s going to have a lot of success.”

Pfaadt beat the Braves on April 27 when he worked six-plus innings and allowed three runs (two earned) to win his fifth straight start. He is 2-0 with a 3.57 ERA in three career starts against Atlanta.

Holmes was effective last month, holding the opposition to three or fewer runs in five of six starts. In his latest outing, on Friday against the Boston Red Sox, he took the loss after allowing three runs over 5 2/3 innings, despite matching his season high with nine strikeouts.

“We’re going to have some bad ones, we’re going to have some good ones,” Holmes said. “It’s just the life of the game and we come to the field every day and hope we can put a ‘W’ in the win column and when you don’t, you just turn the page and look forward to the next day.”

Holmes did not receive a decision in his start against the Diamondbacks in Phoenix on April 26, when he allowed six runs in 5 2/3 innings. He has made three career appearances against Arizona, two of them out of the bullpen, compiling a 5.40 ERA and no decisions.

He will hope the Atlanta offense can escape its funk. The Braves, who have lost 10 of their last 13 to fall six games under .500, managed only three hits on Wednesday. They scored one run or none in five of those defeats, and they have hit just 13 homers and scored 45 runs in the past 13 games.

“We’ve got to do better the entire game if we want to get where we want to go,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said. “There’s no blame to anybody, but as a team we just have to do better overall with all aspects. We don’t have any margin for error, so we have to play a solid, clean game in order to win.”

–Field Level Media