{"id":20935,"date":"2025-05-12T11:12:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T11:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/20935\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T11:12:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T11:12:23","slug":"diamondbacks-miss-2024-mlb-playoffs-after-mets-braves-split-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/20935\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamondbacks miss 2024 MLB playoffs after Mets-Braves split series"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Manager Torey Lovullo and the Arizona Diamondbacks miss their goal of reaching the 2024 MLB Postseason after the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves split their doubleheader Monday. (Photo by Spencer Barnes<\/a>\/Cronkite News)<\/p>\n

PHOENIX \u2013 The Arizona Diamondbacks blew an eight-run lead to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 22, but the unclear postseason picture made foreshadowing the team\u2019s fate impossible at the time. <\/p>\n

Now, over a week later, the answer is clear. <\/p>\n

While the Diamondbacks survived an extra day due to the postponement of the New York Mets-Atlanta Braves series to Monday due to Hurricane Helene, their 2024 season ended with the two teams splitting the doubleheader at Truist Park.<\/p>\n

Making a strong case for Game of the Year, Monday\u2019s first game started with Atlanta leading 3-0 through seven innings behind starting pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach\u2019s five strikeouts and three hits allowed. A Mets leadoff double ended his night, then the Braves\u2019 lead quickly evaporated.<\/p>\n

Three Braves relievers allowed five earned runs on five hits, turning a once-rowdy crowd to stunned silence. However, moments later, the stunned crowd turned into a frenzy after Atlanta\u2019s four-run eighth inning \u2014 capped off with Ozzie Albies\u2019 bases-clearing double \u2014 gave the Braves a 7-6 lead.<\/p>\n

The final act of the drama came from Mets superstar shortstop Francisco Lindor, who blasted a game-winning two-run home run to right-center field in the ninth inning to secure a playoff berth.<\/p>\n

By Game 2, Diamondbacks fans gathered at Guy Fieri\u2019s DTPHX Kitchen + Bar and nxiously optimistic fans watched as Atlanta took care of New York 3-0, which secured the final wild-card berth for the Braves. <\/p>\n

Related story<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the disappointing results Monday, some fans applauded the team\u2019s fight all season long.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, there were a lot of really fun moments,\u201d said Diamondbacks fan Julian Miller. \u201cJust every game that they were down in that they came back and won, really was just a great moment. I mean, we have the Rally-backs, which is our form of cheerleaders, almost, but it\u2019s true that we are the Rally-backs. The Diamondbacks, throughout the season, have been rallying back.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing them work through the adversity and everything like that has really been special to see, and hopefully they can bring a little bit of that magic to the playoffs, if we\u2019re so fortunate to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the second consecutive year, the Diamondbacks handed the keys to their postseason fate
to another team. Last season, the Diamondbacks lost the last four games, before the St. Louis Cardinals secured a postseason berth for Arizona by defeating the Cincinnati Reds 15-6 on Sept. 30.<\/p>\n

Despite the team\u2019s familiarity with these late-season situations, they were unable to clinch a second consecutive postseason appearance after making a World Series run in 2023. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s very similar, and I can draw from those experiences,\u201d manager Torey Lovullo said Friday before the team\u2019s game against the San Diego Padres. \u201cI know that it wasn\u2019t easy for us last year. From start to finish, we caught a tailwind at the right time of the year and got hot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Diamondbacks lost five of their last seven games to end the regular season, including losing two of three games to the division-rival San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres, and blowing the eight-run lead to the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field.<\/p>\n

Other factors also contributed to the team falling short this season. The Diamondbacks suffered from the World Series hangover for the first two months of the season. The month of May ended with a season-high five-game losing streak, which brought the team\u2019s record to 25-32. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A season full of challenges ends in disappointment as the Arizona Diamondbacks miss the 2024 MLB Postseason. (Photo by Dylan Wickman<\/a>\/Cronkite News)<\/p>\n

During the peak summer season, the Diamondbacks played their best baseball. August was the most successful, as the team rattled off two season-high six-game winning streaks. Rookie catcher Adrian Del Castillo played a huge role in the team\u2019s dominance after he was called up to replace Gold Glove catcher Gabriel Moreno, who suffered a left adductor strain in early August and missed a month of action.<\/p>\n

Del Castillo\u2019s bat proved big-league ready right away. He hit a ninth-inning walk-off home run in his second game and became the first player in franchise history to hit a walk-off for their first career home run. <\/p>\n

A week-and-a-half later, Del Castillo put together a career game with his friends and family in attendance at loanDepot Park, where he hit his first career grand slam and contributed six RBI in a 9-6 victory. He had 14 RBI through his first nine big-league games \u2014 second-most in MLB history since RBI became an official statistic in 1920.<\/p>\n

Arizona won 16 of the 25 games Del Castillo appeared in, including winning his first six games.<\/p>\n

Other key players experienced injuries during the latter half of the season. Two-time Gold Glove first baseman Christian Walker missed the entire month of August, before returning in early September. When he returned, Walker continued his dominant ways, by securing his third consecutive 25-home run, 25-double season.<\/p>\n

2023 All-Star Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who missed three weeks in September, batted .370 with one home run, one triple and five RBI over the last eight games.<\/p>\n

Still, Arizona had its chances and couldn\u2019t come through nor get the help they needed Monday. The MLB-leading team in runs scored were shut out twice in the final five games of the year, which proved to be crucial losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely been kind of a rocky last couple weeks,\u201d relief pitcher Kevin Ginkel said Friday. \u201cWe played pretty much flawless baseball up until early September, and then we kind of had some games here and there that haven\u2019t gone the way we wanted (them) to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manager Torey Lovullo and the Arizona Diamondbacks miss their goal of reaching the 2024 MLB Postseason after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[9472,22,46,5,192,38,2328,2304,101,4,2305,2303,61,1039],"class_list":{"0":"post-20935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-2024-mlb-season","9":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","10":"tag-atlanta-braves","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-braves","13":"tag-diamondbacks","14":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","15":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","16":"tag-mets","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-mlb-playoffs","19":"tag-mlb-postseason","20":"tag-new-york-mets","21":"tag-world-series"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114494567351139502","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}