Rookie's walk-off home run in 9th inning lifts Arizona Diamondbacks over San Diego Padres

Nick Piecoro
Arizona Republic

As he rounded third base, a string of thoughts ran through Seth Beer’s mind late Thursday night. Moments earlier, his home run had landed five rows deep in right field, giving the Diamondbacks an improbable — almost ridiculous — walk-off victory over the San Diego Padres, and Beer flashed back to his youth.

He thought of watching highlights of walk-offs on MLB Network. He thought of posters he had hanging on his wall of victorious celebrations. He knew what he had to do — and what he couldn’t let happen.

“I’ve got to throw my helmet,” Beer recalled thinking. “I just had to make sure it didn’t come back down and hit me on the head. I threw it and looked over and was like, ‘All right, I’m good.’”

Beer’s three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth gave the Diamondbacks a 4-2 win over the San Diego Padres on Opening Day, capping an unforeseeable, four-run, ninth-inning rally. According to Stats Inc., Beer became the first rookie ever to hit a walk-off home run while trailing on Opening Day.

“It was a surreal feeling,” Beer said. “It’s still a dream.”

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It was a game the Diamondbacks had no business winning. Well, that’s not entirely true: The Diamondbacks did not play poorly. In fact, compared to most of their games last season, it was a downright crisp performance. Their defense picked up the baseball cleanly. Their bullpen put up zeroes. Their at-bats were … well, perhaps they deserve some slack. They did have to face Yu Darvish.

“It didn’t start the way we wanted,” first baseman Christian Walker said, “but sometimes that’s just somebody else doing their job.”

The Diamondbacks did not have a hit until the seventh. They finished with three hits total. But they sent four batters to the plate, all of whom scored, in the ninth to rally for a victory that felt more like a Padres gift than a Diamondbacks exploit.

For six innings, they were shut down by Darvish, who allowed little in the way of hard contact, deftly deploying his five-pitch mix and keeping Diamondbacks hitters off balance. They looked like a lifeless group, an offense without thump, and it felt like they were destined to lose as they did so many times — 110 times — last season.

Instead, the mood shifted when Darvish exited. As it did for all starters, the short spring left him on a limited pitch count. He threw 92 pitches and did not come back out for the seventh. Pavin Smith greeted lefty reliever Tim Hill with a solid single to left, breathing new life into the Diamondbacks.

“Normally, Tim Hill for me would be a tough matchup,” Smith said. “But anybody but Yu at that point was going to give us a sense of momentum.”

The Diamondbacks had managed to keep it close thanks to a parade of effective relievers. Though their offense did not score in the seventh or eighth, it opened the ninth within striking distance and with the middle of the order due up against the Padres' new flame-throwing reliever Robert Suarez.

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It soon became apparent things might go awry. Facing Walker, Suarez missed the zone on four pitches. None were particularly close. Smith followed and Suarez missed on four of his next five pitches. A wild pitch moved the runners to second and third and a hit batter loaded the bases, bringing Padres manager Bob Melvin out of the dugout.

Suarez was finished, but the Padres were not done with their charity. On the first pitch he threw, reliever Craig Stammen bounced a curveball that went to the backstop, bringing a run home and putting runners at second and third.

It created an interesting scenario for anyone paying attention — anyone, apparently, but Beer. While the situation raised the possibility of an intentional walk, Beer said he did not let himself to consider the idea.

“I’ve been in a situation like that before in college and you think, ‘They’re going to probably put me on, get the next guy up, have a force,’” Beer said. “And then I’ve been pitched to and been unprepared for the situation and failed. I can’t control that. But I was ready to hit. That was just a learning experience from failures over the course of my career. I was ready to hit in the moment.”

He was ready for something else, as well: Hearing a stadium full of fans chanting his name. Though the stage was new — major leagues, bottom of the ninth, game on the line — being serenaded by “Beer! Beer! Beer!” was not.

“It’s something I had to come through the minor leagues and college and learn how to deal with,” he said. “It can amp you up. It can get you going. I’ve had plenty of moments where I’ve tried to do too much in those kind of situations and not have success.”

Beer took a breath, collected himself and tried to hit the ball the air. At worse, it would tie the game. He wound up doing more than that, scooping a Stammen curveball and launching it into the seats. It was his first walk-off homer in professional baseball — his first since he was playing at Clemson in 2016.

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“I mean, it’s probably Number 1,” he said, when asked where this moment ranked for him. “It was Opening Day. This is a big deal. It’s a memory I’ll have forever. It’s still really hard to put into words.”

The Diamondbacks are a team coming off a miserable season that is expected to do nothing and go nowhere. They are a club in search of an identity. They might have been handed this victory. But at least they did not drop it.

“A win like that is not an accident,” Walker said. “It’s on purpose. That’s who we are. We’re going to grind it out to the very last pitch, regardless of how the game starts. We’re going to be there until the end.”

“I think that type of win probably means a little more, in general,” Diamondbacks left-hander Madison Bumgarner said. “But the fact that it came on Opening Day is pretty cool, too. It can get us jumpstarted here on the right track. I think it was a big win for us, regardless.”