The Diamondbacks are in San Diego tonight with Brandon Pfaadt on the mound, and the setup around the game matters just as much as the lineup card. Arizona and the Padres both have plenty at stake in a matchup that comes with the D-backs still trying to keep their postseason hopes alive.
Arizona’s lineup starts with Lars Nootbaar in left and Ketel Marte at second, followed by Gabriel Moreno behind the plate and Geraldo Perdomo at short. Corbin Carroll is in right, Nolan Arenado at third, Tim Tawa at first, Pavin Smith as the designated hitter, and Jordan Lawlar in center. Pfaadt gets the start against Casey Mize for San Diego.
The roster picture also shifted before first pitch. The Diamondbacks made the following roster moves, with the active roster now at 28 and the 40-man roster at 40.
There’s also another game being tracked closely: Rays-Phillies. That one was in the fifth inning when the thread got underway, with Tampa Bay ahead 2-0, and that score has real implications for Arizona’s path.
The Philadelphia magic number is two, so if the Rays sweep them, Arizona can afford one loss. If the Diamondbacks sweep San Diego, then they can afford the Phillies to win one.
The situation is still fluid, but the pressure is squarely on Philadelphia, and that only grows if results continue to break Arizona’s way this weekend.
On the pitching side, Burnes’s return from the IL has not gone the way anyone in Arizona wanted. His line since coming off the injured list has been rough: a 7.84 ERA over 10.1 innings. Even with that, the Diamondbacks have won all three of Corbin’s outings, though that success has come “despite” rather than “because”, with the offense putting up seven runs per game.
With the rotation situation pointing toward a bullpen game tomorrow, Arizona is hoping for length from Pfaadt tonight. Six innings would go a long way.
And beyond the night’s immediate scoreboard watch, there’s the bigger picture. The current NL West landscape is still tilted heavily toward the Dodgers, who have revenue 50% more than any other team in the division and 129% more than the Diamondbacks.
That gap has helped fuel five straight division titles for Los Angeles by an average of eleven games, if the standings hold. Under those conditions, Arizona’s realistic target is a wild-card race.
At 160 games in, they’re still in it.
In Other News...
D-Backs Lose Corbin Burnes At The Worst Possible Time
Corbin Burnes is headed to the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation, a frustrating turn for a Diamondbacks rotation that was already trying to steady itself in the seasons final stretch. He was supposed to take the ball for his next scheduled start, but Arizona now has to reshuffle its plans with the last weekend of the year looming.
Burnes has been dealing with a string of setbacks since Tommy John surgery in 2025, and his recent return to the mound did not come with the kind of sharpness the Diamondbacks had hoped for. For a club trying to get through the finish line, losing a pitcher of that caliber at this point forces another round of adjustment, with little time left to sort it out. [Read more 🡒]
Diamondbacks Enter Final Weekend With Their Season Hanging On
Several playoff spots are already spoken for, but the race that matters most in Arizona is still very much alive heading into the final weekend. The Phillies are sitting in front in the National League wild-card chase, yet the Diamondbacks have kept themselves in position by owning the tiebreaker, which gives this stretch run a different kind of urgency than a standard late-September climb.
Seeding across the league may still be shifting, but for the Diamondbacks the focus is simpler: survive and get in. With clubs like the Padres, Cubs, White Sox and Guardians already in, the last open doors are narrowing, and Arizonas path depends on one final push while Philadelphia tries to finish the job first. [Read more 🡒]
Ketel Marte Has Created An Ugly Diamondbacks Problem At Worst Time
Ketel Martes 2026 season has become a far different conversation than the one the Diamondbacks expected to be having about one of their most important hitters. Jayson Stark of The Athletic went so far as to name Marte the National Leagues Least Valuable Player, pointing to both his absence during a series and the downturn in his production at the plate. For a club that has leaned on him for impact in the middle of the lineup, it has been a sharp and unwelcome shift.
The bigger concern for Arizona is that Martes numbers no longer look like those of a player carrying a lineup, but more like those of an average bat after two strong seasons. His on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS all fell off, leaving the Diamondbacks with a problem that arrives at the worst possible time. When a player of Martes caliber stops providing that edge, it changes the feel of an offense, and it leaves Arizona trying to sort out how much of the gap is temporary and how much might linger. [Read more 🡒]