Varsho Walks off Padres in the 9th, Diamondbacks Win 3-2

RECORD: 37-80, PACE 51-111

Daulton Varsho hit a walk off homerun in the bottom of the 9th to send the Diamondbacks to a 3-2 victory over the San Diego Padres tonight. It came on the 6th pitch of the at bat, and was a curveball that stayed in the center of the plate. It was his first walkoff homer as a professional. He hadn’t hit one since his freshman year in college.

It capped off a really well played game for the team. Madison Bumgarner was excellent through 6 scoreless innings protecting a 2-0 lead. However he allowed a game tying homer to Wil Myers in the 7th however and was none too happy after getting pulled before he could finish the inning.

But the bullpen did their job. Taylor Clarke struck out Manny Machado with two outs and two on in that 7th, and worked a scoreless 8th. Tyler Clippard pitched a scoreless 9th as well, setting up the walkoff opportunity for Varsho. It was a clean defensive game as well, with none of the miscues we’ve seen so much of.

Varsho also had a two out RBI knock in the 2nd to give the D-backs a 1-0 lead, and Ketel Marte hit a laser to left field in the 5th for his first homer since June 2nd.

In the 6th inning Bumgarner came to the plate with one out and bases loaded, and the D-backs still holding that 2-0 lead. Torey elected not to pinch hit and try to score some more runs there. Bumgarner struck out and Nick Ahmed popped out leaving them empty handed for the inning. That seemed to bite them the very next inning when Myers hit his homer, but it all turned out well in he end.

After the game Torey was asked about Madison’s outing, and of course he was glowing in his praise. He highlighted how he’s lead the charge in the rotation lately of getting deep into ballgames. He said the discussion in the dugout was “sharing information”. Torey said he also liked the matchup with Clarke vs. Machado , who was just 2 for 9 with a couple of strikeouts against Clarke.

For his part, Bumgarner was a pretty straight forward about it.

“That’s part of what you get with me. That’s maybe not always right and I understand that. I like to compete and I want to win and that’s definitely not the first time, it’s probably the 100th time that something like that has happened. I’m just happy that Clarke came in and did a great job and we got the win, that’s all I care about”

I asked him about what’s lead to the improvement in the changeup, and he said “10 years of practice”. When he got a little more serious about the answer he said there was no one thing in particular, but it’s felt good since he’s come off the IL.

Varsho talked about learning to be himself , and believing he could do the things he’s done in the minors at this level, “Knowing I can be the same hitter I was in the minors” .

Audio Link to Torey, Bumgarner, and Varsho Post Game comments

Here is a reel of the offensive highlights of the night:

And here is your Madbum highlight reel from the evening

Win Expectancy from Fangraphs Box Score

Daulton Varsho with a whopping +.453 . Taylor Clarke +.185 and Tyler Clippard +.141

Bumgarner had just +.057 tonight, again highlighting the limitations of WPA as a value stat. It’s not that. It’s a descriptive stat, describing the moments, not necessarily the overall contribution to the win or loss.

Pavin Smith, -.134 and Christian Walker -.079 had rough nights at the plate tonight.

Roll Call

Smurf-1000 take COTD with this nice little bit of attendance snark. They were happy indeed