Diamondbacks' Playoff Hopes Die in San Diego

As hard as the Arizona Diamondbacks have fought down the stretch, they simply couldn't come away with a must-win game against the San Diego Padres on Friday night, ending their improbable postseason hopes with a 7-4 loss at Petco Park.

In what may very well be his last start as a member of the D-backs, Zac Gallen was ambushed in the fourth inning, and Arizona's resilient offense couldn't muster enough of a comeback. The magic had run out.

With the Reds winning, the D-backs are unable to catch up, as Cincinnati owns the tiebreaker. Arizona falls to 80-80 with two more games still to play.

Arizona Diamondbacks' Zac Gallen Bit By Crushing Homer

Gallen began his outing with three scoreless frames. He had to labor, but was getting the job done. Unfortunately, he would run into a fourth-inning surge.

Gallen, who had been riding an exceptional hot streak for the second half, came undone on Friday night. He allowed six runs (five earned) on seven hits and three walks, completing only 4.1 innings despite throwing 103 pitches.

Gallen gave up a trio of one-out singles in the fifth, allowing the Padres to score their first run and putting runners on the corners. He then issued a walk to Freddy Fermin before engaging in a nine-pitch battle with Fernando Tatis Jr.

Gallen would leave one too many hittable pitches over the heart of the plate, serving a near-middle-middle fastball that would leave the park at 111 MPH. San Diego took a 5-2 lead, and the D-backs would not recover.

Left-hander Philip Abner entered and got the final two outs. He walked in Gallen's sixth run with two calls worth of help from the home plate umpire. Juan Morillo threw a scoreless sixth inning and Andrew Saalfrank threw a scoreless seventh.

Ryan Thompson gave up a run in the eighth to extend San Diego's lead. It was Thompson's first earned run since September 7 — a span of seven appearances.

Diamondbacks' Offense Nearly Scrapes Out Comeback

The Diamondbacks jumped out to a very quick lead. In the first inning, Ketel Marte unleashed on a first-pitch fastball, shooting his 27th homer of the season 410 feet deep to right center.

Jake McCarthy — the subject of some bunt-signal intrigue on Friday — tacked on to that lead with a 423-foot blast of his own. Arizona earned a short-lived 2-0 lead, but could not continue to tack on against Yu Darvish.

The D-backs couldn't get much going, but began to build an inning in the eighth, still within grand slam range. Marte and Corbin Carroll walked to begin the inning and Blaze Alexander hit into a fielder's choice.

With two outs, the D-backs took three straight walks, pulling to within two at 6-4. That forced Mason Miller into the game, who struck out Jorge Barrosa to end the threat.

Perdomo walked to lead off the ninth, but Arizona ultimately stranded him, going down in order after the base on balls.

Three times, Arizona gave away free outs on the basepaths. Blaze Alexander was caught stealing in the second inning. Geraldo Perdomo was thrown out by a wide margin trying to stretch a double into a triple in the third inning. Ildemaro Vargas overslid second base in the fifth.

It was that kind of night, after that kind of season. The D-backs were clearly trying to do too much with everything on the line, but instead played a relatively unsound game on Friday night.

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