“I mean, anytime you can come up in that spot and win the game for the team is just a special moment, and I think obviously coming off the bench too for a pinch hit makes it even cooler. I know how tough it is to be a pinch hitter. So to be able to execute like that and in your one at-bat of the game is pretty awesome, and obviously seeing the guys how excited they were and all the fans are cheering. It was just really cool.” — Ryan Waldschmidt
As mentioned, some players have gone a very long time without hitting a walk-off home-run for the D-backs. Nick Ahmed played 888 games for the D-backs, and never felt that thrill. Ryan Waldschmidt may be forgiven for feeling it’s an easy feat to accomplish, having done it twice in his first 66 career MLB contests. Indeed, he did it twice in the month of August. The only other Diamondback with two walk-off HR in the same calendar month was Chris Young on June 5 + 19 in 2007. Ketel Marte also had a pair of more adjacent walk-offs earlier in 2026, on May 19 + June 4 – sixteen days apart, compared to Waldschmidt’s eighteen days.
It’s all the more remarkable because Waldschmidt was sent down to Reno in mid-June, as pitchers exploited his trouble with breaking pitches. Said hitting coach Joe Mather, “The league made a little adjustment, started spinning a lot of pitches, making it tougher for him at a level of which he’s never seen… The slider started coming out more, we noticed that.” Ryan was called back up four weeks later, after an injury to Lawlar left the team in need of an outfielder, and was a solid contributor the rest of the way, with a .710 OPS. But nothing surpassed the pair of walk-off home-runs he hit in August.
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How do we separate them? Both were two-run shots, coming with a man on second, when the D-backs trailed by one run. His walk-off against the Dodgers came with two strikes, as opposed to one strike versus the Cubs. And, of course, walking off Los Angeles does come with bonus, simply because it’s Los Angeles. However, it was off Edwin Diaz, who trudged off the mound with an ERA of 11.00 across ten appearances. Frankly, I feel my grandmother could have taken Diaz deep, and she died in 1984. Jacob Webb’s ERA this year after meeting Waldy? Just 2.91. Also, Arizona were down to their final out when Ryan delivered, making it particularly dramatic.
“When I go up there and I’m looking up at the scoreboard and seeing it’s the bottom of the ninth inning, two outs, down by one, guy on base and get my name called to go pinch hit, I was grateful for the opportunity. So, I’m walking up, smile on my face, like this is what everyone dreams to do, every kid, every time you’ve played baseball growing up, you make this scenario up in your head. So for me to go up there and be able to do this in real life and have that opportunity, it doesn’t even matter anymore if you get a hit or not. This is just one of the coolest opportunities that you could ever get.” — Ryan Waldschmidt
Indeed, by Win Probability, it was not only the biggest hit of the year, at +85.5% it ranked top five in franchise history, and the greatest in over 14 years. The all-time record was by Ryan Roberts – though perhaps not the hit you’re thinking, his grand-slam against the Dodgers. That was in 2011, and was worth +90.8%. But even higher, at +91.1%, was this one against the A’s the following year. Not sure how that counts for more, but them’s the numbers. Anyway, what of Waldschmidt’s?
The Cubs had a 4-0 lead through seven, having scored a remarkable thirty unanswered runs in a row. Jordan Lawlar then got hit in the head in the eighth, adding to the gloom. But a checked-swing roller by Gabriel Moreno, with an xBA of .080, became an RBI double, and Geraldo Perdomo made it a one-run game with a single. In the ninth, Tim Tawa drew a one-out walk, and was run for by Jose Fernandez. With two outs, and Waldschmidt pinch-hitting for Jorge Barrosa (another element in favor of this walk-off), Fernandez stole second and the call was upheld after a review requested by the Cubs manager. Two pitches later…
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Statcast tells us this had a 31-degree launch angle. It left the bat at 102.6 miles per hour, and the ball would have traveled an estimated 408 feet. Waldschmidt became the first rookie in Diamondbacks franchise history to hit a pinch-hit, walk-off home run. More remarkably, he had more walk-off homeruns (2) than regular home-runs (1) to that point in his career. He’s among just five players to have two walk-off homers in their first three bombs – among the others, curiously, was team-mate James McCann.
“Being a pinch-hitter, I went up looking for the fastball,” said Waldschmidt afterwards. However, Webb started him off with a slider. He laid off it, and that gave Ryan a look at the pitch. When Webb threw another one on the fourth pitch of the at-bat, the batter was ready. He said, “I saw the same kind of release [point] with that pitch that I saw in the first one, so I had a good feeling where I thought it was going to end up. And just tried to stay through it, keep my head down and not try and [take] too big [of a swing] on that kind of pitch.” The result has now become the 2026 SnakePit Play of the Year – congratulations to Ryan for that!
Previous winners
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The full list of award winners
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
