A later than expected departure from Chicago, but a happy flight back to Phoenix
Recaps
[SI] Diamondbacks Salvage Series Finale with Gritty Win Over Cubs – Naylor once again delivered a big knock in the 11th, putting Arizona ahead 3-2. With closer Justin Martinez unavailable for the game, they turned to Drey Jameson to close it out. “[Martinez] was just a little bit fatigued, heavy workload for the first couple weeks of the season,” Lovullo told Jackson. “With the built-in off day tomorrow, we feel like he’s going to be 100% ready for the rest of the season. Once again, I cannot pitch [Martinez], [A.J. Puk], Beeks, Shelby [Miller] every game. I would love to. We have to be responsible here and this is just a situation where he needs a little bit of rest and he’ll get back on the bump on Tuesday if needed,” Lovullo said.
[Dbacks.com] After 2 rain delays, D-backs prevail behind Naylor, Kelly in 11 innings – Merrill Kelly got the start for the Diamondbacks and waited out a 39-minute rain delay to start the game and another 59-minute delay three batters into the bottom of the first. Kelly left the game with a 1-0 count on Seiya Suzuki [with two outs in the sixth] after experiencing cramping in his right hamstring. Cramping has been an issue for Kelly on and off over the last two years. He and the training and nutrition staff have tried many different ways to combat it and they will continue to look. “It’s the same stuff I’ve been dealing with,” Kelly said. “Frustrating for sure. I feel fine right now, just going to try to get back to the drawing board and see if we can uncover a rock we haven’t before.”
[AZ Central] Diamondbacks just clutch enough, stop Cubs in extra innings to avoid sweep – No, the Diamondbacks did not do everything right on Sunday afternoon. They did not even have most things go according to plan. But they won a baseball game — and they escaped a cold and rainy Wrigley Field April 20 without being swept. It might not sound like much, but given the circumstances, it was almost worth savoring. In beating the Cubs, 3-2, in 11 innings, the Diamondbacks got a strong performance from Merrill Kelly and more strong work from their bullpen. But they needed to audible in both circumstances. “The guys really dug in and they stayed focused,” Torey Lovullo said. “Just one guy after another came out and sacrificed for the good of this win and the good of their brothers. It was very powerful and I’m very proud of them.”
Photo by Griffin Quinn/Getty Images
Team news
[Arizona Sports] Diamondbacks’ front office ranked top 10 in MLB – Senior MLB writer Tyler Kepner of The Athletic released a list where top decision makers from around the league ranked the top 10 front offices in baseball. The Diamondbacks place at the No. 8 on the list. They received 30 total points, including one first-place vote. They fell one spot from last year’s ranking at No. 7, when they received 43 points and also earned one first-place vote. There’s widespread respect for Mike Hazen: We heard he’s “one of the most underrated front-office people in the game,” “extremely sharp, very intelligent, knows the game inside and out, contemporary” – and several folks noted that he hires good people around him.
[SI] Diamondbacks Infielder Activated from IL, Optioned to Triple-A – Blaze Alexander has been reinstated off the 10-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Reno. Alexander suffered an oblique strain in late February in spring training, sidelining him for the next month. He did not appear in any Cactus League games from that point forward. After a period of rest and recovery, Alexander began doing baseball activities in mid-March and worked his way up to being able to play in games. He has been on a rehab assignment with the Reno Aces, but the time period for that has run out, so he needed to be officially optioned to Triple-A.
[Baseball America] MLB Players With Eye-Popping Statcast Data So Far In 2025 – Corbin Carroll is the mold-breaking prototype that proves players don’t need to be 6-foot-7 athletic freaks to hit the ball super hard… Can a 5-foot-10 guy really transform himself into something resembling Judge, the undisputed king of damage on contact? Carroll’s transformation into a reasonable facsimile of Judge is astonishing. It proves that any player, even ones of smaller stature, has the potential to make massive gains in power. The data are painting a very clear picture with Carroll–he’s made the choice to swing a lot harder at the expense of his bat-to-ball and swing decisions.
And, elsewhere…
[Reddit] Tombstone Baseball Club (c. 1880’s) – Art Austin, of the Tombstone State Park says Mining Superintendent George Staple Rice introduced the sport to the city’s mining district in March 1880. “His team of mill workers from the Stone Wall mine/Boston Mill, known as the San Pedro Boys, played the other teams from nearby mill works,” he says. “In March 1882, Rice decided to see if the Tombstone men would field a team. On April 26, at least nine men showed up to discuss the possibility of a game. On April 29, 1882, an exhibition game against Rice’s San Pedro Boys was played. The outcome must have been favorable for on May 5, 1882, the Tombstone Baseball Association was formed.”
[AP] Brewers shatter 33-year-old team record by stealing 9 bases, 6 in 1st inning – All of them came in the first four innings. Six were swiped in the first, the first time in the expansion era a team stole that many bases in an inning. “That’s the game we play,” said Brice Turang, who had three of the steals to increase his season total to eight. “So we’ve just got to keep playing it.” Sportradar said the Brewers were the first team to steal six bases in an inning since Aug. 26, 1919, when the New York Giants had six steals in the third inning of the first game of a doubleheader against Pittsburgh.
[ESPN] How the Padres’ October disappointment inspired 2025 success – What is embedded in Shildt’s memory, he recalled in a conversation earlier this week, is how the Padres players responded in Game 2, when fans pitched garbage at them at Dodger Stadium. They supported each other, Shildt said; they lifted one another, with third baseman Manny Machado gathering the players in the dugout to address the chaos. “In a huge moment, a riotous atmosphere, our group got even closer together,” Shildt said, “and we played even better.”