I certainly enjoyed rewatching all of these… But there can be only one winner!
The D-backs didn’t make the post-season, but that certainly does not mean the 2024 campaign was devoid of entertainment. There were days where the team seemed absolutely unbeatable – whether that was rolling to blowout victories, powering back from behind, or edging past their opponents in slugfests. Below are what I’ve decided – with a little help from my fellow SnakePitters – are the five best games of the 2024 season. The link for each game goes to the SnakePit recap of that particular contest, following by a video recap of the game, and an explanation of why it deserves consideration.
March 28, Opening Day 16-1 slaughter of Colorado
Nominated by AZNailgal520. “There was so much excitement in the air that day, for our 2024 Diamondbacks! We were coming off a World Series appearance, historic spending and excellent offseason acquisitions by Mike Hazen! Chase Field was the place to BE on Opening Day! The place was packed to a sell-out crowd and the chants for rookie Blaze!, Blaze!, Blaze! still gives me chills! Our half inning slaughter just kept going & going for 33 minutes of hit after hit! It was truly remarkable and something I’ll never forget. My hands were sore for 3 days from incessant clapping & high-fiving my friends in the neighboring seats!” The 14-run third was the biggest NL inning since 1952.
April 16, 12-11 madness in extras against the Cubs
Coming into this one, Arizona had a record of 184-7 when their pitching staff gave up more than ten runs in a game. Make it 184-8 afterward. Somehow they overcame allowing a four-spot AND a six-spot in the same contest, as well as blowing three leads of their own, being ahead 1-0, 4-1 and 8-5 at various points. They were down to their final at-bat before Ketel Marte tied it up with his home-run when the D-backs had two outs in the ninth. After Kevin Ginkel was successful in stranding the Manfred Man in the tenth, Randal Grichuk drove in a walk-off double, for the most pitching-deficient victory by the Diamondbacks at Chase Field since the 2017 season.
April 30, Bee-movie with a happy ending vs. Los Angeles
This was memorable even before it started, a bee colony taking up residence behind home-plate. By the time a beekeeper arrived to handle them, the game started almost two hours late, with the D-backs having to scratch scheduled starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery. But that might have worked in Arizona’s favour, and the end result was certainly worth the wait, with Christian Walker homering twice, including a walk-off, two-run shot in the tenth innings to give the Diamondbacks their first victory of the season over the Dodgers. Walker also homered in the fourth, helping counter an LA run scoring on a wild pitch, and another on a balk. 1AZFan1 might get recap headline of the year too: “The Perfect Swarm”.
July 29: six-run comeback in regulation over Washington
I started that night’s recap with one out in the top of the first, as Washington sent their eighth man to the plate against Jordan Montgomery. Through the middle of the fourth, the base-runner tally was: Washington 12, Arizona 0. The D-backs did stem the bleeding, but were still 8-2 down at the seventh inning stretch, before chipping away with single tallies in the seventh and eighth. That set the stage for the most remarkable ninth inning in Arizona history for over sixteen years, since July 2008. Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll each had two-run home-runs in the ninth, the latter coming off the bench for his first career walk-off home-run and the years’s top Win Probability by a Diamondback.
July 30, The biggest shutout, 17-0 over Washington
Nominated by Justin27. “Lost in the offensive onslaught was…. Ryne Nelson going 7 innings, striking out 9 (I even commented about that aspect in the thread) and having a game score of 80. It is kind of the best of both worlds. I looked at the box scores of all the games in which the Dbacks gave up 0 runs, that was the highest game score. The next highest was a Gallen start against the A’s, with 76.” Before this year, the D-backs had scored 17+ nine times, but never held the opposition to less than two runs. They did it TWICE this year: here and a 17-1 win over SF on April 19. This was also the biggest shutout in the NL since April 2022, and the worst shutout loss for Washington since becoming the Nats.
September 15, The longest of the year, 11-10 vs. Milwaukee
As recently as 2016, the D-backs had twelve contests that went four hours or more. It’s telling that this was the season’s longest contest by time… and still ended in ten minutes less than four hours. It was still quite the game: Arizona jumped out to a 5-0 lead through three, before the bullpen imploded and Milwaukee scored eight unanswered runs. It was then the home team’s turn to come back, and the teams ended regulation tied at eight. Things looked grim as the Brewers scored twice in their half of the tenth. However, the D-backs responded with their first five men in the bottom half all reaching base, including a game-tying HBP and a walk-off single for Eugenio Suarez.
Below is the poll. Which was your favorite game of 2024? Tell us in the comments!