There wasn’t a great deal of traction on getting nominations in this category – people I think got distracted by the arrival of a shiny Merrill Kelly-shaped bauble on the Diamondbacks Christmas tree, and
so largely forgot about this. There was just the one nomination – thanks, Michael for your diligence! – which gives me a bit of executive privilege to select the other candidates. It proved quite tricky: this was definitely a season of highs and lows, where it seemed like every other game was either Arizona snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, or the other way around. However, here are the five candidates, in chronological order. Links go to the full game recap.
June 5: Diamondbacks 11, Braves 10: It’s alive! IT’S ALIVE!!!
You know you are in for a contest, when the highlights of the game start in the bottom of the fifth inning. With the Braves leading 10-4, and the D-backs one away in the ninth with the bases empty, you would have got very long odds against this one ending up a nominee. But an incredible seven-run ninth turned things around – Eugenio Suarez made the first out, then later drove in both the tying and go-ahead runs. This was certainly up there with the Ryan Reynolds slam game in terms of franchise comebacks. Indeed, the 0.08% Win Probability after Suarez’s first AB makes it the 14th greatest comeback in baseball history.
June 9: Diamondbacks 8, Mariners 4: It was an adventure!
Just four days later, they nearly delivered another entry, on the other side of the equation. Arizona led from the first pitch they saw, Corbin Carroll delivering a lead-off homer. Merrill Kelly spun six shutout innings, and with two outs in the ninth, we had a 4-0 advantage. But Jeff Brigham faced four batters, retired none, and the lead had gone. Neither team could score the Manfred Man in the tenth, but after a Carroll strikeout to lead off the bottom of the eleventh, two walks loaded the bases for Josh Naylor, who delivered the win in the most emphatic way possible. It was our only walk-off HR of the year, and the first walk-off slam since Roberts’s in 2011.
July 25: Diamondbacks 1, Pirates 0: Yo Ho, Yo Ho!
There were opportunities on both sides, each team going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. But neither could convert. For Arizona, Ryne Nelson threw six innings of one-hit ball, and was followed by the unexpected heroics of Anthony DiSclafani. He put up four zeroes, including stranding the Manfred Man in the tenth. Two fly balls brought Carroll from second to home in the eleventh, and Kevin Ginkel left the ghost runner on third for the narrowest of wins. This was the Diamondbacks first 1-0 win in extra innings for more than a decade (August 2014), the fourth in team history, and the first such without an extra-base hit.
August 23: D-backs 10, Reds 1: What Have You Done with Our Bullpen?!??
The phrase “bullpen game” is enough to send a chill through any D-backs’ fan. It brings back memories of the disaster which was Game 4 of the 2023 World Series (10-0 down after three innings). But this was the polar opposite. In a game started by Jalen Beeks, Arizona scored three times in the bottom of the first inning, delivered theoretical tacos in the third, and their Win Probability never sunk below 90% thereafter. Beeks, Nabil Crismatt and Jake Woodford unexpectedly took a shutout into the eighth, in a game which didn’t even tax much of the ‘pen. Goes to prove that sometimes, victories don’t need to be dramatic to be very pleasant!
September 23: Diamondbacks 5, Dodgers 4: Cold Like the Frog!
The D-backs weren’t expected to contend after selling off at the trade deadline. But, somehow, they clawed their way back over .500 and stayed in the race. They were facing the division leading Dodgers in Los Angeles, and facing Shohei Ohtani on the mound as well as at the plate. They trailed 4-0 at the stretch, but clawed their way back and were one run down in the ninth. A hit batter and walk put the men on base, then a two-strike sacrifice bunt, sacrifice fly and Geraldo Perdomo’s single to left brought home the tying and winning runs. It put the D-backs just one game back of a wild-card spot, with five to play. However, it would be the team’s final win of the season…
Here’s the poll – as ever, explain yourself in the comments!
But, wait! There’s more! LOSS of the year?
This was also a year of quite impressive defeats for the Diamondbacks. As a special one-off poll, here are five of the most unpleasant games we endured in 2025. The playlist below has the summaries for all of them, if you are feeling particularly masochistic, and in need of fifteen minutes of pain. We couldn’t even find room for the great individual performances which were wasted, such as Eugenio Suarez’s four home-run night, or Brandon Pfaadt’s incomplete game shutout.
- April 18 @ Cubs. Trailing 7-1 one after seven, the D-backs scored 10 in the 8th inning, only to give the lead right back. The bullpen allowed eleven earned runs while recording six outs.
- May 9 vs. Dodgers. The D-backs scored eight straight after being 8-3 down, but Kevin Ginkel and Ryan Thompson combined to give up six runs in the ninth, including a three-run go-ahead HR to Ohtani.
- June 7 @ Reds. Five runs behind after the first inning, the D-backs were 13-1 down by the end of the fourth. Few stuck around to see how this played out, except poor Dano who had to recap it.
- August 16 @ Rockies. Colorado were terrible this year. But, somehow, Arizona were worse on this night, blowing a 7-2 lead at the stretch. The Rockies didn’t even need to bat in the ninth.
- September 24 vs. Dodgers. The night after Perdomo’s walk-off above, we blew a 4-1 lead, then couldn’t manufacture a run in extras, after McCarthy missed a bunt sign. Effectively killed our playoff hopes.
