The Diamondbacks were going to need to have a game like this at some point over these final few days of the season, one in which the bullpen — and right-hander Nabil Crismatt — carried the load for the day.
It had been assumed that day would come this weekend in San Diego against a Padres team that might be playing with nothing on the line. But the Diamondbacks made a surprise change prior to their series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers and opted to have their bullpen game on Thursday, Sept. 25.
The decision turned out disastrously.
The Dodgers rolled to an 8-0 victory at Chase Field, a win that put the Diamondbacks’ playoff chances on life support with three games remaining in the season.
The loss dropped the Diamondbacks to 80-79, putting them 1½ games back of the New York Mets for the final wild-card spot in the National League. They also fell a game behind the Cincinnati Reds, who won earlier in the day against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Any combination of Diamondbacks losses or Reds wins that add up to two would eliminate the Diamondbacks. And, if the Mets manage to beat the Chicago Cubs later in the evening, the same would be true of Mets wins and Diamondbacks losses.
The win clinched the NL West for the Dodgers, who have won the division 12 of the past 13 years.
The Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman homered to lead off the second inning against the left-hander Jalen Beeks, who served as the Diamondbacks’ opener, then scored seven more runs (five earned) off Crismatt during his three innings of work. Freeman homered off him, as well, as did Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages.
Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks were shut down by Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who scattered four hits and two walks across six scoreless innings.
“Yamamoto is one of the best players in the league; that’s why they paid him $325 million,” Diamondbacks shortstop Geraldo Perdomo said. “I feel like we probably got out of our plan, we didn’t get on base against him and he gets to say he beat us.”
Perdomo added: “I feel like we didn’t have a really good approach against him. We’ve faced him a couple of times before and had success against him. But not this time.”
Perdomo made a key defensive mistake that led to two runs in the second inning. His foot was maybe six inches off the second-base bag when he took a throw from first baseman Tim Tawa, a fact that did not go unnoticed by the umpire positioned nearby. Rather than the inning-ending double play Perdomo was so eager to turn, the Diamondbacks did not record the out at second — and Perdomo’s throw to first was late, as well.
Two batters later, Mookie Betts lined a two-run single to left-center to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 4-0.
The Diamondbacks never recovered, raising questions about whether they were still shell-shocked from their brutal, 11-inning loss the night before in a game in which they loaded the bases but failed to score in the bottom of the 10th inning. Had they won, they would have controlled their own destiny in the wild-card race.
“Maybe,” manager Torey Lovullo said when asked if there might have been a carryover effect from the loss. “I’m not going to lie: I didn’t sleep at all last night. I probably had, like, three hours of sleep. I can’t imagine anybody around me slept good. But that’s part of it. That’s the business. You got to find a way to get it done.”
As Lovullo spoke, the sounds of the Dodgers’ division-title celebration could be heard from down the hall at Chase Field.
The Diamondbacks had been expected to start right-hander Zac Gallen in the series finale before announcing the change the night before. (Gallen had known well in advance he wasn’t pitching until San Diego).
Lovullo said the decision was largely driven by a desire to get extra rest for Gallen. He presented that line of thinking when a reporter asked if it might make more sense to have the bullpen game against a Padres team that could already have its postseason hopes wrapped up rather than against a Dodgers team that was on the verge of clinching.
“You can argue it any way possible,” Lovullo said. “I can give you 10 good reasons and you can give me 10 good reasons.”
He added: “I think it comes down to Zac and what Zac needed. Zac’s a little gassed. To be honest with you, for the past two starts he’s been ill. Nobody knows that. He’s been gutting it out. We want to give him a little landing space for his own physical body.”
Desperate for wins, the Diamondbacks will head to San Diego, where they will face a Padres team that has an outside shot at claiming home-field for the wild-card round.
“The Padres are a good team,” Lovullo said. “I can sit here and tell you that we got to sweep them. We do. I think that’s kind of the mindset. We got to win every game we can. We’ve got three left.”
Said Perdomo: “These are the last three games of the season and we have to give everything we have in the tank.”
—Nick Piecoro
Lovullo explains rotation shuffle
Lovullo said the club’s thinking with its rotation shuffle was driven by a desire to give right-hander Zac Gallen an extra day of rest.
“I think it comes down to Zac and what Zac’s needed,” Lovullo said. “Zac’s a little gassed.”
Gallen had been listed as the scheduled starter for Diamondbacks’ series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday, Sept. 25, but the team announced the night before that Beeks would pitch instead. The plan was for Crismatt to follow Beeks.
Gallen will pitch on Friday, Sept. 26, in the series opener against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.
Lovullo noted that Gallen has been under the weather for each of his past two starts and the club wanted to be proactive to “give him a little landing space for his own physical body.”
Lovullo was asked if Gallen asked for the extra day.
“No,” he said. “That was us. That’s us reading the room and doing the best thing for the athlete.”
The decision gave the club a chance to send a lefty to the mound to match up with the Dodgers’ top sluggers, though Dodgers manager Dave Roberts countered by slightly tweaking his lineup.
Rather than having Ohtani, Betts and Freeman as his first three hitters, he dropped Freeman to the cleanup spot and moved Hernandez into the No. 3 hole.
Crismatt spent about a month in the Diamondbacks’ rotation before the club moved to a four-man about 10 days ago. He has made just one relief appearance since Sept. 14, working one inning against the Phillies over the weekend.
“That’s a good question,” Lovullo said, when asked how many pitches Crismatt might be able to throw. “We were just arguing about that in my office. I don’t know that answer.
“We’re going to read and react the same way we always do. It’s going to be on him. If he’s out there and he’s effective we’re going to stay with him. If it starts to wobble a little bit — we have no margin for error, zip — we’ve got to move fast. That’ll be our mindset.”
—Nick Piecoro
Season attendance surpasses last year’s
With Thursday, Sept. 25, the final regular-season home game of 2025, the Diamondbacks were already assured of drawing close to 2,400,000 fans to Chase Field over 81 home dates.
The exact number, with the Sept. 25 crowd of 34,92, was 2,393,773 fans for 2025.
The team surpassed last season’s total of 2,341,876 fans on Sept. 24 with more than 43,000 in attendance.
This season’s total is the largest home attendance since 2008, the fourth largest since 2003 and ninth-highest in franchise history.
Average attendance per game in 2025 will fall between 29,000 and 30,000.
-Jose M. Romero
Coming up
Sept. 26: At San Diego, 6:40 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Zac Gallen (13-14, 4.70) vs. Padres RHP Yu Darvish (4-5, 5.51).
Sept. 27: At San Diego, 5:40 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (9-8, 4.91) vs. Padres RHP Michael King (5-3, 3.57).
Sept. 28: At San Diego, 12:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Brandon Pfaadt (13-8, 5.00) vs. TBA, or Padres RHP Nick Pivetta (13-5, 2.87).
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
