On the tenth day of Christmas, the D-backs gave to me...

Despite a strong push from, verily, a plethora of Arabian baboons. ["Would you say I have a plethora of baboons?"], which turned as red as... certain parts of primate anatomy, Fortunately, it fell just short, and I'm delighted I don't have to start digging through some of the wildlife pages on Wikipedia for information on today's topic. Instead we turn to Shorrai, who brings us something dear to our hearts:

10th inning walkoff!

This is a topic which was already discussed, in particular with regard to our best walk-off of 2015. Winner in the popular vote there was the April 10th victory over the Dodgers, courtesy of Ender Inciarte, just beating, by a margin of six votes, the win over the Cubs which featured Goldie's last strike heroics. Whether in the 10th inning or not, there are few things more satisfying than a walk-off win, so what follows applies to all such events, regardless of the inning, and covers all 123 regular season walk-off victories in team history, going back to the very first, on June 28, 1998, which was also the first walk-off home-run by a Diamondback, courtesy of Yamil Benitez.

However, there are also weird things, such as the Diamondbacks getting a walk-off hit in a game they lost... This has happened twice. On August 4, 2001, we were down to our final out against the Mets and trailed by two, but David Dellucci on second, so had the tying run at the plate, in the shape of pinch-hitter Mark Grace. Unfortunately, Grace's single hit Dellucci, and when a runner is hit by a batted ball, they are out - in this case, ending the game, instead of putting the tying run on base. If that scenario sounds familiar, David Peralta had a similar walk-off hit in a loss this year at Dodger Stadium, the ball nicking Jordan Pacheco as he ran from first to second.

Let's stick to the pleasant version of the walk-off, and you'll be pleased to here that the Dodgers have been the most common victims, having trudged off the field, bitter and defeated, 16 times. Division rival Colorado and San Diego are just behind on 15, but the Giants have some catching to do on nine. We have walk-off wins over 24 of the other 29 franchises. The opponents we still need to complete the set are Anaheim, Boston, Detroit, Minnesota and the New York Yankees. Though I seem to recall, we did have a fairly decent post-season walk-off against the last-named...

I was surprised to find that Trevor Hoffman, one of the great all time closers, is tied with Terry Adams as the pitcher most often on the mound at the time, both having been there three times. At the plate, Luis Gonzalez has the lead with nine walkoff PA's, ahead of Matt Williams (7) and Chris Young (6). Paul Goldschmidt's five lead the current roster members. Aaron Hill has four; there's then a long drop-off, to the one apiece for Chris Owings, Phil Gosselin and A.J. Pollock. We should probably anoint 2013 the Year of the Walk-off, as we had 13 that season - more than we managed in 2014 and 2015 combined. The average has been fractionally below seven per year.

Probably less unexpected, most have come out of the #3 spot in the order (21), with #4 next-best, at 18. However, the eight hole has pulled its weight with 14, which is considerably more than the leadoff spot, which has just eight. Most hits come with one out (57), then two outs (35), with 31 coming while nobody had been retired. 22 came on the first pitch of the at-bat, most of any count. At the other end, two came on 3-0 counts; those were by Shea Hillenbrand in 2004, and Lyle Overbay in 2011. The latter was the only four-pitch walk-off walk in franchise history, and was also our most recent walk-off walk of any kind.

We've had 45 walk-off home-runs, and Young leads the way there, with five. There has been just one three-run walk-off homer and one walk-off grand-slam - remarkably, both came off the bat of the same hitter, Ryan Roberts. The three-run hit came against the Athletics on June 8, 2012, when we were 8-6 down in the bottom of the ninth. The grand-slam? Oh, I'm sure you remember what was perhaps one of the most staggering comebacks in all of baseball history, on September 27, 2011, as we conceded five runs in the top of the 10th versus Los Angeles, only to score six in the bottom half - all with two outs! - capped by Roberts' bomb. "Are you watching, Milwaukee?"

That was the 10th-inning walk-off to end all 10th-inning walk-offs. I certainly wouldn't be averse to the Diamondbacks giving us something as monumental to savor in 2016.

On the tenth day of Christmas, the D-backs gave to me...
Tenth-inning walkoffs...
Nine perfect innings...
Eight maids taking selfies...
Seventh game the clincher...
Six years of Greinke...
Five Goldy dingers...
Four falling chicken tenders...
Three free tacos...* [* terms and conditions apply]
Two gold gloves...
and a Corbin with a strike three!

We're almost there, folks: just another couple of verses to go! The penultimate stanza is "11 ladies dancing". Make of that what you will, and I'll see you tomorrow for that!