Josh Naylor hits walk-off grand slam as D-backs survive Mariners comeback
Diamondbacks first baseman Josh Naylor delivered a walk-off grand slam in the 11th inning to avoid another potentially disastrous loss.
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PHOENIX — The Diamondbacks had the Seattle Mariners down to their last strike with a 4-0 lead in the ninth inning, and yet it took 11 frames for Arizona to secure an 8-4 victory.
First baseman Josh Naylor delivered a walk-off grand slam in the 11th inning against former D-back Carlos Vargas to avoid another potentially disastrous loss, although concern for another pitching injury clouds some of the jubilation.
JOSH NAYLOR THE BEAUTIFUL MAN THAT YOU ARE pic.twitter.com/U52QZyNEE0
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) June 10, 2025
For the second straight home game, the Diamondbacks won after an important pitcher walked off the field with the athletic trainer (Corbin Burnes on June 1). Closer Justin Martinez exited the game with two outs in the ninth inning due to right elbow tightness, and he will have imaging on Tuesday. Concern that he could miss significant time is high.
That’s where the game got off track for the D-backs, who played 8.2 innings of clean baseball from pitching and defense with just enough offense to make it comfortable.
Jeff Brigham entered and allowed back-to-back singles before giving up the game-tying, two-run shot to former Diamondback Dominic Canzone. It was a bomb, too, a 450-footer.
A 4-0 lead with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning was gone, and Seattle had closer Andres Muñoz ready to force extra innings. He did so with a 1-2-3 inning.
Shutout innings from Juan Morillo and Jalen Beeks gave the D-backs a chance to escape with the win, as they prevented the ghost runner from scoring.
Seattle intentionally walked Ketel Marte with one out in the 11th, and Geraldo Perdomo worked a walk to load the bases for Naylor.
Naylor nearly ended the game with a liner that just landed foul down the line in right, but he turned on a cutter up and snuck it over the right-center-field wall. He finished the game with three hits and five RBIs.
“That was tough, but again, you gotta keep going,” Naylor said of rallying after Martinez exited. “It was sad to see, we did our best to rally around him and get a win.”
Merrill Kelly became somewhat of a subplot to this game despite a second straight scoreless outing worthy of earning a victory.
“That was probably one of the more crazy games I’ve been a part of,” Kelly said.
The Diamondbacks stuck with it to snap a three-game slide and improve to 32-34.
“ It’s hard to win a major league baseball game,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “We’ve talked about that before, but the way it happened today and the things that happened in a short amount of time, the way we were able to rebound and center ourselves and get back in the ring … it was great to watch these guys celebrate after so many different hardships.”
Josh Naylor delivered a walk-off grand slam to end a dramatic night at Chase Field.
His postgame thoughts: pic.twitter.com/RDVVL2Yur5
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) June 10, 2025
Merrill Kelly deals vs. Mariners
After blanking the Atlanta Braves last week through seven frames, Kelly extended his scoreless innings streak to 15 innings on Monday.
Kelly worked through a two-on, no-out jam in the sixth inning to end his third start of the year in which he threw at least six scoreless innings.
He only allowed four hits against Seattle, all of which were singles and one was considered hard hit (95 mph+).
Kelly sat down 11 of 12 batters at one point, six with strikeouts. He finished with seven strikeouts to two walks.
The right-hander also picked off a runner and nearly a second, as Arizona challenged a bang-bang safe call in the sixth inning that stood after review. Kelly has three pickoffs this season, tied for fifth in MLB — the four pitchers with more are all left-handed.
“Good overall,” Kelly said of his outing. “I think I got away with a couple pitches here and there, if I had to nitpick. … There’s some situations today I think, in my mind, I got lucky.
“Overall solid, take away those couple pitches that I’m talking about and everything else was good.”
Kelly has thrown at least six innings in nine of his 14 starts, bringing a level of stability to a rotation in need of it. His season ERA dropped to 3.18, which is 15th among National League starters.
Kyle Backhus, Ryan Thompson and Shelby Miller kept the shutout intact through eight innings.
“Merrill was fantastic. He went as hard as he could for as long as he could,” Lovullo said. “Then we maneuvered into the bullpen. We had a good game plan. The guys went out and executed and then what you anticipate next is J-Mart to finish that game. That was the start of a few blows that we started to take on very quickly.”
Corbin Carroll homers to start
Corbin Carroll lifted the first pitch from Mariners starter Emerson Hancock off the top of the left-field wall in front of the bullpen and out. Carroll retook the team lead with 19 home runs and gave Kelly some early run support.
He had never hit a first-pitch, leadoff home run before, which has only been done 17 times in franchise history. With his ninth career leadoff shot, Carroll grabbed sole possession of third on the club’s all-time leaderboard, trailing only Chris Young (13) and Ketel Marte (10).
Corbin Carroll starts the game off with a homer! pic.twitter.com/rdsRnQ9qYQ
— MLB (@MLB) June 10, 2025
Josh Naylor’s 2nd career walk-off
Naylor cracked his second career walk-off hit in the major leagues. His first was a home run against the Minnesota Twins in 2022, when Naylor was playing for Cleveland.
When asked if he ever hit a walk-off grand slam, Naylor said, “ When I was playing MLB The Show. I don’t think in real life.”
Walk-off grand slams, Diamondbacks history:
Today Josh Naylor
9/27/11 Ryan Roberts
5/9/00 Damian Miller https://t.co/Eco8Jj27YI— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) June 10, 2025
Diamondbacks’ next game
Brandon Pfaadt gets another opportunity to right the ship on Tuesday evening after he’s allowed 13 earned runs over his last two starts.
Seattle initially planned to start right-hander Bryan Woo (3.07 ERA), but Woo was pushed back to Wednesday. Right-hander Logan Evans (2.83 ERA) will start on Tuesday, and Wednesday’s original starter Bryce Miller (5.73 ERA) will hit the injured list.
First pitch is at 6:40 p.m., and the game will air on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app.
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Comments
21 Comments
Az native has been saying, losing pitching coach Strom was a mistake, the dbacks would regret. I think he is right.
I know it's just one game, but.....
Despite his defensive deficiencies, Josh Naylor is a junkyard dawg and is becoming one of my favorite Dbacks.
I don't miss Christian Walker one iota.
The bullpen is a dumpster fire.
I would like to know if this problem is a Dback problem with injuries to the pitchers OR all MLB teams are having the SAME percentage of pitchers' injuries. If the percentage and severity (i.e. IL) are the same throughout the league then it is a league issue not a team issue.
From what i have read, this increase in pitching injuries are the result of pitchers increasing their velocity, spin, and movement on all their pitches, not just their fastball. The pursuit of higher speeds and more "stuff" on pitches has led to increased stress on the elbow, shoulder, and other joints.
One article stated that one of the reasons for the increase in pitchers' injuries is offseason training: "Some pitchers limit their throwing in the offseason and spring training, which can leave them unprepared for the demands of the season." Does the Dbacks track the offseason training for their pitchers? If the pitchers are putting more 'stuff' on their pitches but haven't incorporated more training for the added stress and strain might explain these injuries.
One must ask is the new pitching coach telling the pitchers to put more 'stuff' on their pitches versus the old pitching coach? Or these injuries are not related to the new pitching coach?
Another question to ask is the analytics of the games are driving these injuries? I have noticed the Cox pitching board at Chase Field with the horizontal and vertical drop numbers. Are these numbers causing pitchers to put more stuff on their pitches causing them to be more susceptible to injuries.
Maybe the solution is to go back to 'simple' pitching instead of trying to put 'stuff' on every pitches (i.e. changeup, cutter, slider, etc). Looking at the injuries and the team's ERA (overall and individually...starters and bullpen...,being at the bottom of the MLB), I don't see the 'improvement' with this new complex pitching methods except the injuries.