Five Hits to Tie It, Four Walks to Lose It

The seventh inning gave Arizona a chance to make a difficult afternoon interesting. It also gave that chance away almost immediately.

The Arizona Diamondbacks lost 9-4 to the San Diego Padres on Sunday at Petco Park. The decisive sequence was the seventh’s split personality: Arizona used five hits to erase a 4-1 deficit, then San Diego answered with a three-run half-inning built around patience and one timely single.

That is a harsher ending than the first six innings alone would have predicted, but it is also the cleanest explanation for the finale. Arizona did enough to get back into the game. It did not protect the tie long enough to make the comeback matter.

A rally with real substance

The Diamondbacks’ seventh began with back-to-back doubles. Nolan Arenado doubled, and Corbin Carroll followed with another double that scored Arenado. After Pavin Smith struck out, Tim Tawa singled Carroll home to cut San Diego’s lead to 4-3.

James McCann then singled, putting two runners aboard. Jordan Lawlar’s grounder produced a force at second and removed McCann, but it kept the inning alive with runners at the corners. Lars Nootbaar followed with a sharp single that scored Tawa and tied the game. Ketel Marte then lined out to end the threat.

That was a five-hit inning, three runs and a genuine offensive recovery. Smith’s strikeout and the force play gave San Diego chances to contain the inning. Arizona kept finding the next hit instead.

Carroll finished with a double and an RBI, while Tawa and Nootbaar supplied the other run-scoring hits. For a team that had managed only one run through six innings, this was precisely the kind of burst that can change a game’s shape.

The earlier deficit matters, too. San Diego scored in the third, fourth and fifth innings, including Gavin Sheets’ solo homer in the fourth and Ty France’s run-scoring single in the fifth. Arizona had chipped away once in the sixth when Marte singled home Lawlar, but the Padres still carried a 4-1 lead into the seventh. The rally was not cosmetic; it repaired a substantial hole.

San Diego waited, then cashed in

The Padres’ response was slower and more damaging. Samad Taylor flied out to begin the bottom of the seventh. Arizona still needed two outs to carry the tie into the eighth. Then the inning became a parade of free passes.

Ty France walked. Luis Campusano walked behind him. Austin Hays walked as well, loading the bases. Jake Cronenworth followed with another walk, forcing France home and putting San Diego back in front, 5-4.

The inning’s value came from what San Diego did after receiving those opportunities. Kevin Ginkel replaced Justin Martinez before Freddy Fermin batted. Fermin singled, scoring Campusano and Hays to make it 7-4.

Fermin’s hit was the blow, but the four walks had created the entire platform: the first three filled the bases, the fourth forced a run across, and the single brought two more runners home.

Arizona finally got the remaining two outs after that. Sung-Mun Song grounded into a force play, and Jase Bowen struck out to finish the inning. The damage was already complete. A tie game had become a three-run deficit without San Diego needing a home run or a string of spectacular hits.

The Padres added two more runs in the eighth. Dustin Harris singled, Taylor struck out and Ty France singled. Luis Campusano’s groundout advanced both runners before Austin Hays singled them home. Hays finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs, while Fermin went 2-for-4 with three RBIs. San Diego collected 11 hits overall and drew six walks; Arizona had eight hits and one walk.

That contrast says something important without turning one game into a broad diagnosis. Arizona’s offense found its best inning when it kept hitting through adversity. San Diego’s answer came by extending the inning until a base hit could do the rest.

The Diamondbacks’ seventh showed they could recover from a deficit. Its bottom half showed how quickly that recovery could become irrelevant when the tie was left unguarded.

The damage began before Martinez entered: Arizona had spent six innings falling behind. Its five-hit response was the strongest evidence that the lineup could still rescue the afternoon. But after working so hard for three runs, the Diamondbacks let San Diego recover all three with one hit. That was an expensive way to finish a comeback.

Sources

Official game data

Official game box score

Official game data