{"id":773034,"date":"2026-08-08T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/773034\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:00:22","slug":"ryan-waldschmidts-wild-walk-off-proves-d-backs-can-hang-with-dodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/773034\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Waldschmidt’s Wild Walk-Off Proves D-backs Can Hang With Dodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline, MLB teams were quite interested in Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt. GM Mike Hazen opted not to trade Arizona’s former No. 1 prospect<\/a>. <\/p>\n

That looks like a good decision. <\/p>\n

On Friday night, the Diamondbacks turned what might have been an extremely frustrating loss into one of the most thrilling victories of the year. Staring down a 3-2 deficit in the ninth inning of a close game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Waldschmidt came up to bat against vaunted closer Edwin Diaz, serving as the winning run. <\/p>\n

On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Waldschmidt saw a center-cut 90 MPH slider in the heart of the zone. He crushed that pitch and sent it 105.5 MPH off the bat, 411 deep over the left center field wall. <\/p>\n

As the cheers of a packed Chase Field thundered, Waldschmidt rounded the bases to score the winning run. Arizona walked off their NL West foes, 4-3.<\/p>\n

Waldschmidt said he wasn’t certain it was gone off the bat. He was focused on getting to third base, if possible. <\/p>\n

“I hit it and I was going to try and get to third. As soon as I got it, I started sprinting. And if it didn’t get out, I was going to try and get to third, because there was only one out, and makes it a lot easier on the next guy to walk it off,” Waldschmidt said.<\/p>\n

“So, I started sprinting. And then I heard everyone kind of go crazy. And I looked up and both outfielders were just looking into the stands. So, I was like, that’s pretty sweet.<\/p>\n

“It was great. … For that to be my first walk off, obviously, in my career, in a very long time for me, was just cool. I mean, everyone was fired up. They were all super happy and super excited for me, and obviously, I was excited to be able to do that to help the team win. It was just a really cool environment in here after the game.”<\/p>\n

Ryan Waldschmidt walks off Dodgers\"Arizona<\/p>\n

Jul 27, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt (15) in the batting cage before the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

Seeing as the blast was only Waldschmidt’s second home run of his major league career \u2014 with the first coming in a blowout against the Athletics<\/a> \u2014 it was, obviously, his first major league walk-off.<\/p>\n

It hasn’t been an entirely smooth season for Waldschmidt, who was called up and subsequently optioned to Triple-A Reno after some struggles at the plate<\/a>. But since he’s returned, he’s hit like the high-output player Arizona has needed. This moment is the biggest of his young MLB career, and it might stay that way, for a bit.<\/p>\n

“Great moment for Waldy, they’re celebrating him right now,” manager Torey Lovullo said. <\/p>\n

“A young player comes up with the game on the line, has the right heartbeat, slows it down, and then drives the baseball out of the ballpark to win a game in a race that we’re firmly in, it doesn’t get any better.”<\/p>\n

With that swing, Waldschmidt raised his season slash to .292\/.331\/.417<\/a>. He’s hit .350 this month after a .915 OPS in July. It would appear the 23-year-old is coming into his own as a major league player. What better team to do it against.<\/p>\n

Diamondbacks take lead in season series with Dodgers\"Arizona<\/p>\n

Aug 6, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks right fielder Corbin Carroll (7) runs to second base en route to a double against the San Diego Padres during the third inning at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

With the win, Arizona now holds the lead over Los Angeles in the season series, 6-5. The Diamondbacks swept the Dodgers heading into the All-Star Break, and Friday night’s loss serves as LA’s seventh straight loss<\/a>. <\/p>\n

With two more games to go, Arizona has two chances to claim the season series for good. Though, clearly, the NL West will still likely go to the Dodgers, barring a continuation of their struggles, Arizona has shown they can do much more than simply compete against the top-rated club in baseball.<\/p>\n

Waldschmidt said the fact that it was against such an opponent made it that much sweeter.<\/p>\n

“Against anyone it would be pretty cool,” he said. “But obviously, against someone that you consider a rival in any game, to be able to hit a walk off home run against them. And obviously, against a pitcher of that caliber… And to be able to do that against that team and against an arm like that is pretty special.”<\/p>\n

“Everyone was playing their heart out. I mean, it’s 40-plus thousand people in the stands. Two great teams going at it. And obviously, as of now, two playoff teams and World Series contending teams.”<\/p>\n

Arizona is only three years removed from sweeping the Dodgers in the playoffs. Though the postseason is a different environment, the Diamondbacks have shown they have what it takes to defeat MLB’s Goliath.<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline, MLB teams were quite interested in Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt. GM…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2404],"tags":[146,22,4314,5,38,4],"class_list":["post-773034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-arizonadiamondbacks","tag-baseball","tag-diamondbacks","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117058366869944633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773034","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=773034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}