Diamondbacks eliminated from postseason contention with loss to Padres

SAN DIEGO — The Arizona Diamondbacks were mathematically eliminated from postseason contention on Friday night with two games left in the regular season.

After the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, the Diamondbacks needed a win over the San Diego Padres in order to stay alive.

With a 7-4 loss at Petco Park, the Diamondbacks dropped to two games behind the Reds without the tiebreaker, deeming a comeback impossible.

The D-backs (80-80) on Wednesday had the bases loaded with one out in the 10th inning with a chance to walk-off the Dodgers and jump into the third Wild Card spot. Instead, they have suffered three straight crushing defeats to end a selling team’s unlikely push for October.

“ It sucks,” Corbin Carroll said. “I don’t have too much to say. Just we didn’t do enough.”

Arizona jumped out to a 2-0 lead early after solo home runs from Ketel Marte and Jake McCarthy on Friday, but everything flipped on a Fernando Tatis Jr. grand slam in the fourth inning.

Zac Gallen started his day with 3.1 scoreless innings, but three singles put him in a bind in the fourth. After he walked nine-hole hitter Freddie Fermin to load the bases in a 2-1 game, Tatis dug in with a chance to break it open.

On the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Tatis launched a no-doubter to left-center field, a haymaker to the Diamondbacks’ playoff odds.

Gallen, in what may be his final Diamondbacks start depending on how free agency unfolds this winter, finished with 4.1 innings and five earned runs allowed. His season ERA climbed to and finishes at 4.83.

“Obviously what we were playing for tonight, what was at stake, just a pretty tough pill to swallow that we couldn’t get it done,” Gallen said. “We battled for the last two months. To have it end in this fashion, it’s heartbreaking.”

Arizona did not look like a team locked in all night, from baserunning blunders (made three outs in the first five innings) to a costly error from shortstop Geraldo Perdomo and a poor pitching line. The D-backs did not play well enough to overcome those flaws in a performance more characteristic of the first half of this season than the last two months.

The D-backs still had a chance to climb back in during the eighth inning after five walks, but Jorge Barrosa struck out swinging with the bases loaded against Mason Miller on a 3-2 pitch above the zone.

Diamondbacks fall short of miraculous in-season comeback

The Diamondbacks have entered the final weekend of the season with playoff hopes in each of the past three seasons, and this is their earliest elimination since 2022.

This season has been one of extremes for the Diamondbacks from the number of pitching injuries, sizable leads blown late in games and the highs of watching a team fight back into the race over the past seven weeks.

The D-backs were 12-7, 51-59 and 80-77 before settling back down to .500 with two games left.

As manager Torey Lovullo said pregame, “ It was a series of missed opportunities throughout the course of the year that have put us in this situation.”

“ I think there’s a lot to be proud of in this clubhouse, the way that we fought,” Carroll said. “When you look back on the last couple months, there’s definitely some big positives. I think playing meaningful baseball this deep into the year will be good for the younger players.

“I think when you take in the totality of the season and where we started, just very, very disappointing to miss the playoffs.”

The Diamondbacks entered 2025 with expectations to contend after an 89-win season and with a record payroll. Serious injuries from this season will leak into next for Corbin Burnes, A.J. Puk, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Justin Martinez.

At the same time, they found an identity that worked for a younger, more athletic roster down the stretch. A young team gained more experience in high-leverage games, and it has a talented core of position players to build around.

It took an admirable effort to go 29-22 since the trade deadline after selling Merrill Kelly, Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor.

At the end of the day, however, the Diamondbacks had their chances over the last week to stay in the fight and fell short. They will watch the postseason from home for a second straight year after making the World Series in 2023.

“Obviously the expectations we had from a organizational standpoint coming into the season this year were higher than where we’re gonna finish,” Gallen said. “But I think the expectations we had on Aug. 1 were pretty low. If you would’ve told us on Aug. 1 we were gonna be playing meaningful baseball Sept. 26, I think a lot of guys would tell you they’d sign up for that.

“We gave ourselves a chance, just ultimately didn’t come the way we wanted to.”

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