Paul

Sewald

Sewald worked around a Will Smith double and fanned two in his inning before the Ketel Marte won the game in the bottom of the ninth. His ERA is down to 3.47.

Since taking his first blown save on May 13, Sewald has a win and six saves in his last seven appearances, allowing just one run in the process.

Sewald got the call to protect a one-run lead and needed just 12 pitches (eight strikes) to spin a drama-free frame. He got red-hot Casey Schmitt to pop out before striking out Rafael Devers and coaxing a harmless fly out from Matt Chapman to end it. The 36-year-old veteran has converted 14 of 15 save chances to go along with a strong 3.80 ERA, 0.75 WHIP and 24/6 K/BB ratio across 21 1/3 innings of work.

Sewald entered in the ninth to close out the game with a three-run lead. He gave one run back on a solo homer by Willy Adames before striking out Casey Schmitt to end the game with his 13th save of the season.

Sewald didn’t allow a hit, didn’t give up a walk, and struck out a batter. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for the 35-year-old, but he has gotten the job done more often than not as seen in his 12 saves on the season with a respectable — if a bit on the high side — 3.72 ERA.

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said that Puk was sitting in the mid-90s with his fastball and “felt good coming out of the session.” We’d imagine he would face live hitters maybe once more before going out on a rehab assignment, but the left-hander could be back with the Diamondbacks in early June. We can’t see the team simply removing Paul Sewald from the closer’s role, but it could be more of a committe with Puk back in the mix.

Sewald needed just 13 pitches to finish the outing, preserving the sweep for Arizona. He now has 11 of the team’s 13 saves on the year, but they’ve come with a 4.15 ERA given his near-nonexistent ground-ball rate. The 35-year-old closer is still running his highest strikeout rate since 2023, however, and his WHIP remains under 1. Juan Morillo is having an excellent season himself, should the Diamondbacks look elsewhere for ninth-inning opportunities at any point this season. Meanwhile, AJ Puk (elbow) faced hitters for the first time on Tuesday and should be back mid-summer. One would figure Sewald will hold onto the closer role as long as he continues pitching this well.

Sewald walked one but retired the other three batters he faced in a bounce-back outing. He gave up three runs to take a blown save and a loss Wednesday against the Rangers. That’s his only blown save in 11 tries to date.

Sewald was summoned to protect a two-run lead after Arizona rallied to pull ahead in the top of the frame and was unable to convert the save. He got into trouble when Ezequiel Duran smacked an RBI double with two outs in the frame before Jake Burger followed a couple batters later with a game-tying single that chased him from the contest. He was stuck with a loss on top of the blown save when Juan Morillo immediately surrendered a walk-off single to Danny Jansen.

He plunked Corey Seager with two outs, but he retired the other three batters he faced. Sewald has delivered five straight scoreless appearances since giving up three runs to the White Sox on Apr. 23. He’ll eventually face challenges from A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez in the ninth, but the closer’s role in Arizona is all his for now.