A seemingly meaningless ninth-inning rally Friday night paid dividends for the Arizona Diamondbacks in a win on Saturday.
The New York Mets hope they can pen a similar story Sunday after falling the previous day.
The Diamondbacks will look to salvage a split of a four-game set while the Mets will aim to earn their first series win in almost a month Sunday afternoon when Arizona concludes a six-game trip by visiting New York.
Right-hander Brandon Pfaadt (2-4, 4.16 ERA) is slated to start for the Diamondbacks against left-hander Jose Quintana (1-5, 5.06).
The Diamondbacks had their biggest offensive outburst in more than three weeks Saturday when Christian Walker hit a grand slam in the third inning of a 10-5 victory.
Walker’s second career grand slam built off the momentum generated in the ninth inning Friday, when the Diamondbacks trailed by five runs with two outs before Joc Pederson hit a three-run homer and Walker followed with a shot one pitch later.
Reed Garrett, who is acting as the Mets’ closer with Edwin Diaz on the injured list, struck out Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to preserve a 10-9 win. But the late rally was vital for the Diamondbacks, who entered Friday with just nine runs in their previous six games.
The 10-run outburst Saturday was the biggest for the Diamondbacks since they beat the San Diego Padres 11-4 on May 5. The 19 runs in a two-game span are the most for Arizona since April 19-20, when it had 20 runs against the San Francisco Giants.
“We did some good things finishing off the game (Friday) and definitely wanted to acknowledge that and channel that,” Walker said. “You put up a bunch of runs off a bullpen, there’s something there. We just tried to repeat that and get back out to a good lead.”
The Diamondbacks led 10-1 with one out in the ninth Saturday before the Mets scored four times. Tomas Nido hit a run-scoring groundout, and Jose Iglesias, who returned to the majors Friday for the first time since the 2022 season, extended the inning by legging out an RBI infield single.
Pete Alonso followed with a two-run homer and Tyrone Taylor singled before Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo called on closer Paul Sewald, who got J.D. Martinez to fly out to center.
New York finished with 12 hits Saturday after collecting 14 on Friday. It marked just the second time the Mets have collected at least 10 hits in consecutive games since their most recent series win, a rain-shortened two-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals May 6-7. They had 27 hits against the Miami Marlins from May 18-19.
“Continue to play the game hard — (Iglesias) beat out that ground ball to keep the inning alive, gave Pete a chance to hit a two-run home run,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “They got their closer in. There’s a lot of things that go into it, but that’s how you’re supposed to play the game.”
Pfaadt took the loss Tuesday when he allowed four runs over seven innings as the Diamondbacks fell to the Texas Rangers 4-2. He has never opposed the Mets.
Quintana also absorbed the defeat Tuesday night when he gave up three runs over six innings in the Mets’ 3-0 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Quintana is 0-2 with a 7.53 ERA in six career starts against the Diamondbacks.
–Field Level Media