September 30 – Ketel Marte hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning to blow a six-run lead and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 11–2 on Sunday afternoon in Phoenix. The San Diego Padres kept their wild-card playoff hopes alive.
Eugenio Suarez and Randal Grichuk also homered for Arizona (89-73), which finished the regular season against the New York Mets. The team competes with the Atlanta Braves for the final two National League wild card spots.
The Mets and Braves, both with 88-72 records, will play two games in Atlanta on Monday.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. drove in three runs on three hits and Jake McCarthy drove in two for the Diamondbacks.
Arizona starter Brandon Faught (11-10) gave up two runs (earned) on three hits in 5 1/3 innings. He gave up one walk and struck out nine. Ryan Nelson earned his first save of the year after giving up one hit in three scoreless innings.
San Diego’s Luis Arraez won the NL batting title, going 1–3 with a .314 average.
Aráez became the first player in MLB history to win three consecutive batting titles with three different teams. He won the 2022 American League batting title with the Minnesota Twins and the 2023 NL batting title with the Miami Marlins.
Martin Perez (5-6) allowed six runs on eight hits in 3 2/3 innings for San Diego (93-69), which opens its wild-card playoff series on Tuesday.
The Padres rested key players Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Jurickson Profar and Kyle Higashioka, with Jackson Merrill singled in the second quarter and Elias de Yaz homered for a 1–0 lead.
Arizona State took the lead on its fourth drive, which included five straight hits on nine pitches.
Christian Walker started the game off with a one-out double and moved to third on Grichuk’s single. Suarez and McCarthy followed with RBI singles before Gabriel Moreno’s run-scoring double made the score 3–1.
When Geraldo Perdomo was hit on a grounder by McCarthy, Marte hit his 36th home run of the season, a 443-foot blast to two points in left-center.
McCarthy had an RBI single in the fifth inning. The lead grew to 7–1 with two outs.
Arce notched his 200th hit for the second consecutive season with a double to right-center in the sixth inning. He then scored on Jake Cronenworth’s grounder to make it 7-2. Gurriel then hit a three-pointer in the second inning to give Arizona an 8-2 lead.
Suárez opened the scoring with his 30th home run of 2024 in the seventh inning and Grichuk finished the scoring with a two-run shot in the eighth inning.
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