When Corbin Carroll stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning with the Arizona Diamondbacks down by one run, 7-6, to the Miami Marlins, he knew how important getting a win on Monday would be. After all, the San Diego Padres, their main competition for the third and final NL Wild Card spot, had extended their winning streak to eight games with an 8-7 win over the Colorado Rockies.

A loss would not have been the end of the world for the Diamondbacks, but this would have put them 3.5 games behind the Padres with 11 to go in the regular season — a deficit that's difficult to overturn. However, the Diamondbacks need not think about that problem anyhow, as Carroll hit a two-run walk-off home run with one out in the ninth to move Arizona to 80-71 on the season, keeping in step with San Diego in the Wild Card race.

Grabbing this win in the manner they did is reinforcing the Diamondbacks' belief in themselves, as they are required to play spotless baseball from here on out if they were to sneak into the postseason.

“I think there’s a lot of motivation in this clubhouse. We all want to play in the playoffs. It just adds to that hunger,” Carroll told reporters after the game, via SI on X.

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Carroll knows the feeling of doing everything in their power, only to come up short in the end. The Diamondbacks finished with an 89-73 record in 2024, only to fall out of the postseason after losing out on the tiebreaker against the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves.

But the important thing right now is putting themselves in a Wild Card position to begin with. They are already playing from behind, so what they should focus on is handling their business and letting the chips fall where they may knowing that they gave it their all anyway.