The Arizona Diamondbacks trailed the Chicago Cubs 2-1 going into the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field on Friday.
Nine outs, 21 runs, 20 hits and five home runs later, the Cubs led 13-11 after what can only be described as an hour of sheer baseball madness.
The Cubs scored five runs in the seventh, then the Diamondbacks stormed back with a 10-run eighth inning, their biggest single frame since their 14-run barrage on Opening Day 2024. Chicago responded right away against an Arizona bullpen that clearly did not make its best pitchers available, as the Cubs pounded Bryce Jarvis and Joe Mantiply for a six-run frame.
RELATED STORIES
Corbin Carroll extends hitting streak to 10 games with RBI knock vs. Marlins
Is that former D-backs pitcher Patrick Corbin or MLB's Spider-Man?
The Cubs won the game 13-11, a final score that will sting the Diamondbacks given their epic comeback effort. The D-backs had both a 99% chance to lose the game and a 96% chance to win it all in the eighth inning.
So, what on earth happened here?
The Cubs seemed to break the game wide open with an Ian Happ grand slam off Ryne Nelson in the seventh. They even picked up an insurance run for good measure.
Diamondbacks score 10 runs in an inning
Then, the Diamondbacks sent 13 batters to the plate in the eighth inning, countering Chicago with a grand slam of their own. Eugenio Suarez crushed a 458-foot rocket to center field off Porter Hodge, his second grand slam of the season, to cut the deficit to 7-5. And the rally kept on going.
458 feet! Eugenio Suárez gets the @Dbacks right back in it!
(MLB x @DairyQueen) pic.twitter.com/oTZu1i381L
— MLB (@MLB) April 18, 2025
Jake McCarthy walked, Alek Thomas singled and they both advanced on a wild pitch.
Corbin Carroll struck out for the second out, but Geraldo Perdomo singled home a run up the middle.
Randal Grichuk, who started the inning with a single, hit a chopper down the third-base line. It was going to be a tough play for third baseman Gage Workman, and the ball bounced under his glove and into left. Thomas scored, Perdomo chugged around the bases and slid in safely. Happ’s throw from left was on the money and in time, but the short hop got away from catcher Carson Kelly.
Two batters later, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. smacked a three-run shot to give Arizona an 11-7 lead.
This looked like a great moment for the team, another valiant comeback even more incredible than their eight-run eighth inning against the Cubs at Chase Field on March 30.
Suarez and Gurriel have been grinding at the plate. Since April 2, they have combined to hit .112, and here they came through with clutch swings at the perfect time.
And yet, it’s hard to imagine this game won’t be one of the most memorable what-ifs of the season.
Diamondbacks blow it vs. Cubs
The Diamondbacks did not deploy their “A” bullpen, so to speak. Justin Martinez (18 pitches) and A.J. Puk (36 pitches) threw in back-to-back games entering the series, as did Jalen Beeks (24 pitches). Ryan Thompson threw 33 pitches on Thursday. Shelby Miller, who has yet to give up a run this season, last threw on Wednesday.
MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert reported Martinez, Puk and Beeks were down and Miller would have pitched the ninth.
Arizona kept Jarvis in the game with a four-run lead. He had recorded the final out of the seventh, but his day went awry quickly. Jarvis hit and walked his first two batters, respectively.
That brought up Kelly, the former Diamondbacks catcher who is off to a flaming-hot start to the season offensively. He hit a two-run shot earlier in the game off Corbin Burnes, and Jarvis threw him a sinker that couldn’t have been more over the middle of the plate.
Kelly sent it over the wall in left-center field to bring the Cubs’ deficit to one run. Kelly ended Friday’s game hitting .419 with an OPS of 1.675.
Jarvis struck out Justin Turner for the first out, and manager Torey Lovullo turned to the bullpen.
He called on left-hander Mantiply, who has really struggled to record outs this season. A longtime-trusted reliever for Lovullo, Mantiply allowed 10 earned runs on 14 hits in 6.2 innings to start the year.
And the Cubs ate him for lunch.
Happ singled to bring up Kyle Tucker, who grabbed the lead with a home run to right field. Next batter Seiya Suzuki crushed a ball 440 feet.
KYLE TUCKER FOR THE LEAD! pic.twitter.com/w4HLI4vmhv
— MLB (@MLB) April 18, 2025
Chicago racked up six straight hits against Mantiply, who stranded the bases loaded to end the inning.
Even then, Arizona had a chance in the ninth after a two-out double from Thomas, but Carroll popped up to end the game. The Diamondbacks’ five-game win streak ended.
The Cubs are the seventh team in the last 125 years of MLB history to win after allowing 10 runs in an inning. It hasn’t happened since 2006, per Sarah Langs.
No single inning in Wrigley Field history — which opened in 1914 — involved more runs scoring than the eighth inning on Friday. The two highest-scoring offenses in the National League met up with the wind blowing out to center field, and even if delayed, that aspect lived up to the billing.
Let’s recap that 8th inning from Wrigley Field today ? pic.twitter.com/SNk7IGUW2v
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) April 18, 2025
Corbin Burnes pitches quality start
Burnes grinded through some tough at-bats early to give the Diamondbacks a quality start on Friday, even if it felt like a completely different game given what happened later. Burnes threw 31 pitches in the second inning, giving up a two-run shot to Kelly to fall behind 2-0. From there, Burnes retired 13 of the next 15 hitters he faced through the end of his start.
He finished with six innings, two earned runs, six hits and three strikeouts while throwing 98 pitches.
Corbin Carroll keeps streak alive
Carroll, who struck out twice to start the game against Colin Rea, lined a fastball into center field for an RBI single in the fifth inning.
The knock extended Carroll’s hitting streak to 11 games, the second-longest active streak behind St. Louis’ Brendan Donovan (13). Carroll’s on-base streak grew to 26 games dating back to last season, as he’s safely reached base in all 20 games to start the year.
Diamondbacks next game
The season-series tiebreaker is on the line Saturday when Zac Gallen takes the hill against Chicago right-hander Ben Brown.
Perhaps the tiebreaker will mean little, but as last year demonstrated, collecting these wins over fellow National League postseason contenders can make a real difference at the end of the season.
The game will air at 11:20 a.m. on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app.
Follow @alexjweiner
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( 8th inning of the Diamondbacks-Cubs game was all-out madness )
Also on site :
- All the Essentials: West Ham United vs. Southampton
- All to know about Lecce vs. Como : prediction, team news, lineups and live Info.
- Heidenheim vs Bayern Munich match news & live streaming - Bundesliga