The Arizona Diamondbacks found a way to get another critical victory by beating the Athletics on Tuesday.
The Arizona Diamondbacks evened up their series against the Athletics on Tuesday with a 6-5 win that went into the 10th inning at Chase Field in Phoenix.
The win moves the Diamondbacks to 52-49 on the season. For fans who did not get to watch the game, what should they know about and take away from this victory?
A quick start
For the Diamondbacks, being at home has been much easier than being on the road this season.
The momentum Arizona gets from its crowd at Chase Field has contributed to a 30-22 record inside the stadium. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks are 22-27 on the road.
That may have played a part in their rapid-fire start on Tuesday, when Max Kepler did not let two men on the base paths go to waste in the bottom of the first inning. With two outs, Kepler launched a three-run home run to right center field to give the Diamondbacks a commanding 3-0 lead.
It was Kepler’s second of the season, and Arizona was in the driver’s seat. Still, it was not an easy victory to secure.
A late collapse
After both teams went scoreless in the second inning, the Athletics were able to get on the board in the third, but Arizona added another run of its own in the seventh thanks to a sacrifice-fly RBI off the bat of Ketel Marte.
The Diamondbacks had a 4-1 lead at that point, and six outs stood between them and a relatively easy victory, but things soon fell apart.
In the top of the eighth, Torey Lovullo called Ryan Thompson to the mound, his third reliever of the night after rookie left-hander Kohl Drake pitched five innings in his MLB debut. After securing the first out of the frame, Thompson gave up a solo home run to Shea Langeliers.
Langeliers’ home run made it a 4-2 game, but Thompson finished the inning. It was in the ninth that trouble really began to brew for Arizona.
Paul Sewald took the mound next for the Diamondbacks in an attempt to close the game. The 2026 campaign for the 36-year-old has been solid at times, but bad at others.
In 40 games this season, Sewald is 2-5 with a 4.71 ERA. Over the last three seasons, Sewald’s ERA has hovered well above 4.00, but he has not given up many save opportunities.
On Tuesday, it was one of those bad nights, and the save slipped through his fingers when he allowed a two-out triple to Donovan Walton that was followed by a game-tying home run by Jacob Wilson. What was once a reasonably comfortable lead became a tie-game situation for the Diamondbacks, and they needed to find a way through it.
Finding a way
Arizona did not produce an epic walkoff winner in the ninth, so it was forced into extra innings, and the situation got worse.
In the top of the 10th, the Athletics took their first lead of the night when Jonah Heim hit a sacrifice-fly RBI to make it a 5-4 game. The Diamondbacks had their backs against the wall, and they needed an answer.
That is where the comfort of being at home played a significant part, just as it did in the beginning of the game.
After Gabriel Moreno and Max Kepler drew walks to open the bottom of the seventh, Nolan Arenado did what All-Star players should do by delivering a game-tying RBI single. After Tim Tawa struck out, Ildemaro Vargas delivered the walkoff single to win the game.
Given that they squandered their lead, it is hard to confidently say that the Diamondbacks could have finished the job had they not been at home. But they were, and it led to another victory in a time where every one of them counts for this organization.
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