Apr 4, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks second base Ketel Marte (4) reacts after injuring his leg during the first inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images / Reggie Hildred-Imagn Images
The Diamondbacks defeated the Washington Nationals 6-4 at Nationals Park. Randal Grichuk’s two-run double off the bench in the top of the seventh was the game’s decisive hit in a back-and-forth game.
Despite the win, the main concern is the health of Ketel Marte. Marte left the ball game in the first, as he came up limping to second base after hitting a ball off the center field wall for a double. He was immediately replaced on the bases by Garrett Hampson. The team later announced it was a left hamstring strain.
“We’re going to continue to evaluate him, most likely headed for the IL,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told reporter Todd Walsh during the postgame coverage on D-backs.TV.
“We budget for these hard times. … For right now, [we’ll] get the evaluation tomorrow.”
Lovullo said the severity would likely be revealed in the next 48 hours, and that Marte would remain in D.C. and travel back to Arizona with the rest of the team.
With Marte out of the game, Hampson did a solid job of filling in. He scored later in the inning on a Josh Naylor RBI single and picked up his first hit of the season to set up Grichuk’s heroics.
Brandon Pfaadt got rocked early, as CJ Abrams and Luis García Jr. took him deep in the first inning for three runs. Despite that, the right-hander was able to settle in and allow the offense to chip away against Jake Irvin.
The damage against Irvin came off the bat of Corbin Carroll, who homered twice facing the Nationals’ right-hander. The first, a rocket into the Washington bullpen in right, cut the deficit to just one run. The second blast, which made it to the upper deck, put the Diamondbacks up 4-3.
Another!
Corbin Carroll crushes his second homer of the night to give the Diamondbacks a 4-3 lead. pic.twitter.com/TkzJFyK26z
— Alex D’Agostino (@AlexDagAZ) April 4, 2025
Now with the lead, Pfaadt got stronger as the game got on. With a chance to punctuate his outing, he left a curveball in the strike zone to Nathaniel Lowe, who rocketed one off the facing of the second deck to tie the game at 4-4. It served as a sour note on what was otherwise another solid start from the young right-hander.
“He gave up those three early runs and then really started to zone in with his fastball, the secondary stuff started to land,” said Lovullo. “We won this game because of what he was able to do.”
Pfaadt was just one strike away from a well-earned quality start. He finished with four runs allowed on three home runs, no walks, and four strikeouts in six innings. However, the offense was able to get that run back the next inning and make him a winner.
The offense was keyed by Geraldo Perdomo, who had three hits from the ninth spot in the order. Perdomo led off the seventh with a single to right. Hampson extended the inning with a two-out blooper to right. That set the stage for Randal Grichuk, who came off the bench for Pavin Smith to face left-hander Jose Ferrer.
Grichuk fell behind in the count but got a 99 MPH fastball out over the plate to hit and blasted one just out of the reach of a leaping Dylan Crews to score both runners.
“We never give in, we never give up,” Grichuk told Walsh. “We’re going to put together good at-bats regardless if we’re up or down. This is an explosive offense, guys can hit the ball out of the ballpark and we’re never really out of it.”
The bullpen made that lead stand. Shelby Miller, A.J. Puk, and Justin Martinez each pitched a scoreless inning to close the game out, not walking a single batter. The Diamondbacks continue to use the closer by committee approach, as Martinez got the save after Puk picked up two in New York.
The Diamondbacks will take on the Nationals for Game 2 of the series. A pair of left-handers will start for the two teams, as Eduardo Rodríguez (0-0, 5.06 ERA) will take the mound for Arizona while Mitchell Parker (1-0, 0.00 ERA) goes for Washington. First pitch at Nationals Park will be at 1:05 p.m. MST.
