Geraldo Perdomo walks-off Dodgers, Diamondbacks 1 game back of playoff spot

PHOENIX — Geraldo Perdomo lined a walk-off single against Dodgers closer Tanner Scott in the ninth inning on Tuesday, as the Arizona Diamondbacks stormed back from down 4-0 to stun Los Angeles, 5-4.

The Diamondbacks had nine outs to work with down by four runs, as a seemingly crushing defeat to their playoff chances flipped into a life-preserving victory.

It was Perdomo’s second career walk-off, capping a postseason-like ballgame in front of a packed Chase Field crowd of 42,882.

“A highly-charged moment in a highly-charged stadium,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “ They go out and link up to one another and fight as hard as any team I’ve ever managed.”

The Diamondbacks are one game back from the third National League Wild Card spot after the New York Mets won and the Cincinnati Reds lost on Tuesday, and all three squads have five contests remaining.

The D-backs matched the Reds with an 80-77 record (Cincinnati owns the tiebreaker), and the Mets are in the third Wild Card spot at 81-76.

SNAKES. ALIVE.

Geraldo Perdomo walks it off for the @Dbacks! pic.twitter.com/6coSMyqwrW

— MLB (@MLB) September 24, 2025

“It feel amazing,” Perdomo said after the game-winning hit.

“It is not about me, honestly. It is about the guys in front of me. … That’s a game we needed. Everybody knows what happened in the middle of the season before the break, we lost a lot of players. We have a lot of young players like me and we’re hungry. We’re hungry, and we are gonna continue to play hard. It doesn’t matter if we are out of the playoffs or we get in, we’re gonna play hard.”

Diamondbacks win chess match with Dodgers

Arizona did all its damage off the Dodgers’ bullpen after starter Shohei Ohtani shut out the Diamondbacks through six innings with eight strikeouts.

Adrian Del Castillo crushed a two-run home run in the seventh inning to cut the deficit to 4-3 off Dodgers flame-throwing reliever Edgardo Henriquez. In doing so, the D-backs won a key game of chess between dugouts.

Arizona pinch hit right-handed batter Jordan Lawlar for the left-handed Jake McCarthy against southpaw reliever Jack Dreyer.

L.A. went to Henriquez, a righty, out of the bullpen. So Arizona pinch hit for its pinch hitter, calling back Lawlar to set up a more favorable matchup with Del Castillo. They burned a bench bat, but late in such a crucial game, the gamble was worth it and paid off.

“(Lovullo) is like, ‘Hey, just be ready. There is a righty in the bullpen,” Del Castillo said. “So yeah, I was ready.”

Lovullo added: “That’s ultimately the move that I thought we’d get to, and that’s the one I wanted and it worked out well. Del handles fastballs, cuts, anything close to him very well.”

ADC YOU LATER pic.twitter.com/jHieVt7zn7

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) September 24, 2025

The ‘Never Say Die-mondbacks’

The eighth inning ended in a thud after Gabriel Moreno was caught at second on a double steal attempt, and Blaze Alexander struck out to strand the tying run at third base.

Hitters 6-8 were due up in the ninth inning, but instead of letting the missed opportunity halt the momentum, the Diamondbacks made something out of nothing.

“I’m not gonna lie, I lost it in the dugout. I wasn’t very happy,” Lovullo said of the botched double steal. “ But I think the guys were super engaged. They wanna win baseball games. They got it. Whatever that ‘it’ thing is tonight, they had it, and they went out there and got reloaded and refocused.”

Ildemaro Vargas was hit by a pitch, and Scott walked Tim Tawa.

That brought James McCann to the plate, and he failed to drop a bunt down fair twice in a row to fall behind 0-2. The dugout took off the bunt sign, but McCann was committed.

He laid down the perfect bunt toward third base, executing the sacrifice to bring the tying run to third base and the winning run to second with one out.

“Mentally, I sold out that I had three opportunities to get it down, and I got it down when it mattered most,” McCann said. “ In college there’s big-time consequences when you don’t get it down. I guess you can thank Dave Van Horn at Arkansas.”

Jorge Barrosa delivered the game-tying sacrifice fly to deep left field. The at-bat started with Barrosa attempting a squeeze bunt with Vargas running down the third-base line, but it dribbled foul. Down 0-2, Barrosa stayed down on a fastball and drove it.

Chase Field was hopping, and Perdomo walked up to the plate needing to find outfield grass to bring home Tawa from second. He jumped ahead 2-0, then worked a 3-2 count after seeing three straight sliders.

Scott tried another slider, but he left it over the plate. Perdomo smoked it to left field, and Tawa slid in safely ahead of the throw as the dugout poured out to meet Perdomo.

The Diamondbacks needed one hit in the ninth inning to plate two runs and win the game.

“It’s a group of guys that love each other, that pull for each other, that really believe in each other,” McCann said.

Lawlar mentioned the phrase “Never say Die-mondbacks” after a walk-off win last week against the San Francisco Giants, and Tuesday encapsulated that moniker with contributions from essentially the entire team.

That includes the pitching staff, as Brandon Pfaadt nearly matched Ohtani through five innings with one run allowed on a Teoscar Hernandez home run. Pfaadt finished with six innings and three earned runs for a quality start.

Relievers Jalen Beeks, Brandyn Garcia and Ryan Thompson shut out the Dodgers for 2.1 innings to keep the game within reach in the later innings. L.A.’s three-headed monster of Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman went 2-for-10 with two singles.

The Diamondbacks have won eight of their last 11 games with two walk-off victories.

“That’s what we play baseball for, to have these moments and win games like this,” Del Castillo said.

Up next for Diamondbacks

The series continues on Wednesday at 6:40 p.m. MST.

Ryne Nelson gets the ball for Arizona against Los Angeles left-hander Blake Snell.

Tune in on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app. 

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