Ildemaro Vargas walks off Athletics in extra innings, Diamondbacks move into tie for wild card spot

PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ildemaro Vargas climbed the ladder to slash a walk-off single on a pitch way above the strike zone in the 10th inning against the Athletics on Tuesday.

The Diamondbacks escaped a game they led from the first inning until the ninth with a 6-5 victory, evening the series and setting up a rubber match on Wednesday.

Arizona has delivered walk-off wins on Sunday with Max Kepler’s double against the St. Louis Cardinals and Tuesday via Vargas.

To get there, D-backs closer Paul Sewald blew his second save of the season (23-for-25), giving up a two-run home run to Jacob Wilson with two outs in the ninth inning. Sewald had the A’s down to their last strike, too, and his ERA climbed to 4.95 after the blast.

The A’s took their first lead of the game in the top of the 10th by scoring the ghost runner on a sacrifice fly, but Athletics reliever Luis Medina walked Gabriel Moreno and Kepler to load the bases with no outs in the bottom half.

Nolan Arenado dumped a single into center to tie the game, and Vargas went the other way to poke the winning single into left.

Imagine hitting THIS pitch to win the game 😮 https://t.co/m6odyrxBLv pic.twitter.com/066zSiTkBA

— MLB (@MLB) July 22, 2026

With the win, the Diamondbacks (52-49) moved into a tie for the third National League Wild Card spot with the Pittsburgh Pirates, whose game was rained out on Tuesday.

The Cardinals and Miami Marlins both lost to fall out of the bracket for the time being. Pittsburgh holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over the D-backs, but it is only July 21 and the two teams play each other again next week.

Kohl Drake solid in MLB debut

Diamondbacks starter Kohl Drake made his MLB debut on Tuesday, and it was a good one.

Drake did not allow a hit over his first two innings and struck out three batters, but his real test came in the third. Lawrence Butler led off with a triple and later scored. Drake found himself with the bases loaded and no outs with hitters 2-3-4 coming up.

This was where the game could have gotten away, but a Shea Langeliers line out to shortstop Geraldo Perdomo took some of the pressure off. Jonah Heim then grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Drake said he may have been putting too much pressure on himself in that inning, leading to tighter mechanics. He credited pitching coach Brian Kaplan for pointing that out and helping him adjust.

“That was a massive moment for him,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “You talk about growth and development. That’s what happens here. When you get out of that mess, it’s a big boost of confidence. And you can see he came back in the dugout kind of floating a little bit.”

Drake got through the next two innings without allowing another run, and he exited in line for the win.

His final line was five innings, four hits, one run, two walks and five strikeouts, as the lefty drew 13 whiffs spread across four of his pitches.

It was not perfect, but he made big pitches in key spots and kept his cool in a dangerous situation, so all-in-all, it was a solid debut.

“Five innings, five Ks, one run. I mean, I’d take that any day of the week,” Drake said. “Definitely would like to give up less free bases, but that’s something we can work on moving forward.

“I do get nervous, but I wouldn’t say it was any more nervous than I have been pitching in Triple-A at all or anything. A lot more excitement, I’d say.”

The Diamondbacks needed it, as their starters went a combined 7.1 innings over the previous two games, and the bullpen has had a heavy workload.

Drake was thrust into the rotation despite an up-and-down season in Triple-A Reno. Arizona simply hasn’t had a choice and are hurting for starting pitching with Michael Soroka, Zac Gallen, Ryne Nelson and Corbin Burnes on the injured list.

How did Ildemaro Vargas hit that ball?

As Kepler put it, that pitch was at Vargas’ head.

He swung down on it like he was chopping wood, which was of no surprise for anyone who has watched Vargas closely.

Vargas does not swing-and-miss. He is in the 94th percentile for whiff rate. He also chases a lot, but for better or worse, he always puts the ball in play.

“That’s what I practice all the time, I stay focused on the fastball,” Vargas told the D-backs television broadcast in Spanish. “I practice that in the cages. Thankful to God, we needed this victory.”

“That was pretty crazy,” Kepler said. “But Vargy would be the guy on this team to do that. I’ve seen him do that before. I kind of envisioned something going into that big hole over by short because it was wide open.”

“He gets on top of high fastballs as good as anybody I’ve seen,” Lovullo said.

Ildemaro Vargas walks it off for the @Dbacks! pic.twitter.com/CwERlG9tjy

— MLB (@MLB) July 22, 2026

Is Paul Sewald a concern?

Sewald is having a tough month when it comes to keeping runs off the board.

He has allowed runs in six of his last nine outings, including four home runs. His ERA was 3.18 before that stretch. Even in completed saves, he has allowed runs in four of his last six.

Sewald has been reliable in save situations all season for the Diamondbacks, and two blown saves at this point in the season is a massive win. But there have been some creaks lately, and it led to what could have been a brutal loss.

Sewald had Donovan Walton down 0-2 with two outs and nobody on, but a sweeper hung and Walton tripled.

Wilson, who was drafted out of Grand Canyon University, was amped after blasting a home run on the third straight fastball up-and-in he saw.

“I know some of the frustration (Sewald is) having is giving up that scratch run or that home run where damage hurts him,” Lovullo said. “I love that he’s got a really good two-pitch mix. I think he just threw three pitches at the same velocity in the same location to a hitter that’s coming home and trying to show off for everybody back here in Arizona, who’s a pretty good player. So you do that to a good player, you pay the consequences.”

To his credit, Sewald came back and struck out Tyler Soderstrom to end the ninth with the game tied.

Tuesday attendance

19,709

Series finale

Merrill Kelly (7–8, 5.20 ERA) will take the mound on Wednesday to complete the Mitch Bratt-Drake-Kelly trio this series, three players who were involved in the Diamondbacks’ trade with the Texas Rangers last summer.

The A’s will start left-hander Gage Jump (3–5, 3.78), who has allowed two earned runs in 24 innings on the road this season. 

The game starts at 12:40 p.m MST on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app. 

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