PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks crushed the St. Louis Cardinals 22-7 over a three-game sweep this weekend at Chase Field to start the second half, and the significance of such a dominant showing is severalfold:
– The Diamondbacks made up ground against the four teams they’ll have to jump to get back into a Wild Card spot.
– They tied the season series against the Cardinals, which is notable if another tiebreaker situation occurs.
– The D-backs returned to .500 at 50-50 through 100 games.
– And they looked like a team that was locked in, knew the urgency of its situation, has seen the rumor mill filled with names in that clubhouse and understood this could be the final opportunity to push with this group.
The Diamondbacks won Sunday’s game 5-3, and their playoff odds on FanGraphs jumped from a Hail Mary 9.8% entering the All-Star break to 19.5%.
“We all know how important the series was,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “We talked about it as far back as that workout on the off day. Our guys came out and responded … They want to play their best baseball and put this team back in the middle of this race.”
The Diamondbacks are still 4.5 games back of the San Diego Padres in the final NL Wild Card spot, which is still quite a hill to climb. The San Francisco Giants were swept in Toronto, so Arizona is one game back of St. Louis and two games behind the Giants and Cincinnati Reds.
The D-backs handled the Cardinals on the backs of three straight quality starts and hot hitting to open every game. Arizona outscored St. Louis 16-1 over the first three innings during the series, and Corbin Carroll set the tone with lead-off triples on Saturday and Sunday.
He has 13 triples this season to lead MLB, one away from matching a career high.
Merrill Kelly threw six innings with two earned runs to secure a victory on Sunday and lower his season ERA to 3.32.
Third baseman Eugenio Suarez was the player of the series, as he clubbed two home runs each on Saturday and Sunday. He leads the National League with 35 long balls and paces MLB with 85 RBIs.
His three-run shot in the first inning on Sunday created a 4-0 gap the Cardinals chipped away at but failed to overcome. Kelly called Suarez his favorite player postgame.
Eugenio Suárez’s third homer in the last 2 games 💥 pic.twitter.com/AiTzm48JgE
— MLB (@MLB) July 20, 2025
Kelly and Suarez are among several Diamondbacks who have been the subject of relentless trade rumors.
“Obviously huge,” Kelly said of the sweep. “With all the deadline speculation and the rumors and everything written on Twitter, we obviously are aware what type of first half we had. … To come out and get a sweep of a team not only in the National League, but a team who’s directly in front of us is big time. Hopefully we can ride this momentum and start turning the talk of us being sellers into hopefully buyers.”
Suarez, who has been vocal about wanting to stay in Arizona, added: “It’s a good message for everybody. Obviously, not think too much about what’s gonna happen the next couple weeks, just stay focused. Stay here, try to win games and everybody stay together and support each other and try to win games. That’s our goal right now.”
The Diamondbacks had not won a series since they visited the Chicago White Sox toward the end of June. They split four-gamers against the Giants and Padres, disappointing outputs considering the D-backs won two of the first three games in both series.
Their last sweep was on June 9-11 against the Seattle Mariners.
In order to give the front office any reason to buy instead of sell, the Diamondbacks will have to sustain this level of play for more than one series, although consistency has been evasive.
“We want to try and make it a hard decision for them,” Suarez said.
Eugenio Suarez says the Diamondbacks cannot worry about the next couple weeks and should instead focus on how to build off a series sweep against St. Louis. pic.twitter.com/oqCofUtgGx
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) July 20, 2025
This is not an age where avoiding the speculation is possible when players are all on social media. Finding ways to let it go is part of the job and a dynamic the team has to go through. Kelly said the clubhouse has remained the same.
“We want to win as this team,” Kelly said. “We want to win as this group of guys. I think if you let that stuff affect you, you start thinking about the grass is greener on the other side, and we want to water the grass here.”
The Diamondbacks have nine more games before the trade deadline, starting with a three-game series against the Houston Astros at Chase Field. Houston paces the American League West but has dropped three consecutive series.
The D-backs reorganized their starting rotation out of the break, which worked this weekend. Brandon Pfaadt threw seven scoreless innings on Friday, Ryne Nelson followed with six innings and one earned run while Kelly added a third straight quality start.
Now, the onus is on Zac Gallen and Eduardo Rodriguez to keep the train moving over the next two games.
Ketel Marte will return to lineup on Monday
Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte missed the past three games after asking for some personal time off in the aftermath of his home getting burglarized. He found out about the break-in while in an Atlanta hotel for the All-Star Game.
Marte mentioned that $400,000 worth of valuables were stolen.
Arizona reinstated Marte from the restricted list on Sunday, and he said he will be back in the starting lineup as the designated hitter on Monday night.
What’s next for the Diamondbacks?
First pitch on Monday is at 6:40 p.m. MST. Gallen will match up with Astros rookie left-hander Colton Gordon.
Former longtime Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker will make his return to Chase Field after signing with Houston over the offseason.
Catch the game on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app.
