PHOENIX (AP) — Ketel Marte’s two-run homer capped a six-run fourth inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks stayed alive in the National League wild card race with an 11-2 rout of the playoff-bound San Diego Padres in their regular-season finale on Sunday.
Arizona finished 89-73 and won’t know if it reaches the postseason until a makeup doubleheader Monday between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves, who are both 88-72. If either team sweeps, the Diamondbacks reach the playoffs but if the doubleheader is split, the Mets and Braves advance and Arizona is out.
San Diego (93-69) won’t learn its Wild Card Series opponent until Monday.
Luis Arraez of the Padres doubled in the sixth inning to finish 1 for 3 and move to the verge of his third consecutive batting title at .314. He would be the first since 1900 to win three batting titles with three different teams.
Brandon Pfaadt (11-10) allowed two runs and three hits in 5 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts for the Diamondbacks, who had lost five of six.
Ryne Nelson, activated from the injured list on Friday, pitched three innings for his first big league save, finishing a four-hitter.
Elias Díaz’s RBI double in the second put San Diego ahead.
Christian Walker’s double began a run of five straight hits in the fourth off Martín Pérez (5-6). Eugenio Suárez’s single drove in Walker and gave him 100 RBIs for the season.
Jake McCarthy’s run-scoring single, Gabriel Moreno’s RBI double and Geraldo Perdomo’s run-scoring grounder built a 4-1 lead, and Marte hit his 36th homer, a drive into the left-field second deck.
Pérez gave up six runs and eight hits in 3 2;3 innings.
Suárez hit his 30th homer off Matt Waldron to dead center field leading off the sixth and Randal Grichuk connected for his 12th with a man aboard in the eighth, also off Waldron.
Arizona finished with five more wins than last year, when they earned the last wild card and reached the World Series, where they lost to Texas.
Elias Diaz and Jake Cronenworth drove in the runs for the Padres, who won 11 more games than last year and finished with their second-highest total behind 98 by the 1998 NL pennant winners.
A crowd of 38,892 gave Arizona a season attendance of 2,341,876, the Diamondbacks’ highest total since 2008 when they drew 2,509,924.
UP NEXT
Padres: Host a wild card series beginning Tuesday.
Diamondbacks: Await the results of Monday’s make-up doubleheader between the Mets and Braves.
