Diamondbacks 11, Padres 4: Nootbaar's First Pitch, One Game Back

The first pitch of the night went into the bleachers

September 25, 2026 - San Diego - Lars Nootbaar hit Casey Mize's first pitch into the right-center bleachers. His eighth homer. 1-0 before the San Diego Padres had taken a swing. The Arizona Diamondbacks scored in each of the first four innings, beat San Diego 11-4 at Petco Park, and left town one game behind Philadelphia for the last National League Wild Card.

Partly cloudy. 74 degrees. Wind 10 mph left to right. First pitch 6:40 p.m. Attendance 44,512. The game lasted 2 hours, 46 minutes. Arizona had eight hits and 11 runs. San Diego had 10 hits and four runs. Nobody made an error. Arizona just scored them louder.

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-0 on the same night. Arizona is 86-74. Philadelphia is 87-73. Two games left. The Diamondbacks still do not control their own fate. They do own the tiebreaker with the Phillies. The MLB recap laid the math out in one sentence: any combination of Philadelphia wins or Arizona losses that adds to two, and the Diamondbacks are out.

Geraldo Perdomo did not wait for Saturday. "Something magical is going to happen here," he said after the game, per MLB.com.

Mize's four, Pfaadt's 7 2/3

Mize (the loss, 6-10) lasted four innings: seven hits, seven earned, two walks, one strikeout, three homers, 71 pitches. Nootbaar on the first pitch. Jordan Lawlar a solo shot to right in the second, his sixth. Nolan Arenado a two-run drive to left in the third, his 30th, Perdomo scoring. 6-2. Gabriel Moreno singled Nootbaar home in the fourth. 7-2. That was the end of Mize's night and the start of Arizona's cruise.

Brandon Pfaadt (the win, 8-3) threw 7 2/3: nine hits, four earned, two walks, seven strikeouts, 106 pitches, 71 strikes. San Diego put 10 hits on the sheet and still never led. Jackson Merrill scored on Luis Campusano's groundout in the second. Xander Bogaerts scored on Jake Cronenworth's single. 4-2 after two. Arizona answered with Arenado. Pfaadt kept throwing.

Kyle Hart walked three and allowed three runs in the sixth. Perdomo doubled to center. Nootbaar scored. Ketel Marte scored. Moreno scored. 10-2. Lawlar grounded into a double play in the seventh with the bases busy and Arenado still scored. 11-2. Cronenworth forced a run across in the bottom of the seventh. Sung-Mun Song singled Dustin Harris home in the eighth. 11-4. Ryne Nelson got the last out of the eighth. Zac Gallen threw a clean ninth on seven pitches.

Wandy Peralta threw two scoreless innings for San Diego after Mize. Jason Adam walked two and allowed an inherited run. David Morgan finished the ninth. Ten hits. Four runs. The Padres are 89-71 and already in. Friday was a home game they never led.

Eight hits, 11 runs, a shortstop who would not sit

Perdomo went 2-for-3 with a triple, a double, two walks, two runs, and four RBI. He tripled Moreno home in the first. Corbin Carroll lifted a sacrifice fly and Perdomo scored. 3-0. He doubled in three more in the sixth. That is a 13-FP night under AthX Engine scoring, and it is also just a shortstop who kept finding grass.

Nootbaar went 1-for-3 with two walks, a homer, three runs, and an RBI. Moreno went 2-for-3 with a walk, two runs, and an RBI. Arenado went 1-for-3 with a walk, a hit-by-pitch, two runs, and two RBI. Lawlar's homer was the second of Arizona's three. Carroll did not have a hit. He still drove one in. Marte did not have a hit. He still scored. Eight hits were enough because the extra-base hits kept finding seats.

Fernando Tatis Jr. went 2-for-3 with a double. Bogaerts went 2-for-2. Song went 2-for-2 with an RBI. Merrill had a hit and a run. The Padres put traffic on and Pfaadt walked two. They did not put a homer on the board. Arizona put three on before the fifth.

Arizona has won six in a row. The club swept Colorado on Thursday and opened San Diego the same way it opened Denver: a run in the first, then more. The MLB recap said the Diamondbacks still need help from Tampa Bay. Friday they got it. Saturday they need another win, or they need Philadelphia to lose again. The first pitch of the night already went over the wall. The rest of the weekend is whether that keeps happening.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Arizona at 21 team fantasy points, tied with Minnesota for first on a 17-game Friday. Perdomo had 13 hitting FP. Arenado had 10. Nootbaar had 10. Pfaadt had 11.66 pitching FP.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: MLB.com schedule; MLB Gameday wrap; ESPN scoreboard; ESPN box score; AthX Engine daily scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*