The anniversary night already had its script. Twenty-five years after Luis Gonzalez singled off Mariano Rivera to finish the 2001 World Series, Chase Field packed 47,918 for the reunion, Bob Brenly threw the ceremonial first pitch to Damian Miller, and the current Diamondbacks still needed something louder than nostalgia.
Pavin Smith supplied it. With the score locked 3-3 in the ninth, Ildemaro Vargas walked after an ABS challenge flipped a full-count strike that sat below the zone. One out later, Smith, pinch-hitting, turned Michael Fulmer’s 89.5 mph cutter into a 391-foot rocket to right-center at roughly 100 mph exit velocity and a 28-degree launch angle. Final: Diamondbacks 5, Yankees 3. The blast carried a +36% win probability added and became Arizona’s sixth walk-off homer of the season, most in the majors and a franchise record.
Cam Schlittler nearly ruined the ceremony first. The Yankees right-hander carried a no-hitter into the fifth and left after six with three runs (one earned), three hits, and an ERA sitting at 1.94. Jordan Lawlar’s two-run triple in the fifth gave Arizona its first lead. Solo shots from Heliot Ramos and Austin Wells flipped it back. Corbin Carroll’s sacrifice fly tied it in the sixth. From there the bullpens held until Smith’s second pitch of the at-bat ended it. Juan Morillo took the win with 1.1 hitless innings. Fulmer took the loss. The Yankees absorbed their 11th walk-off defeat of the year.
The DFA Was the Mechanism That Built This Swing
Smith’s path is the real story inside the story. He returned June 1 from bone-chip surgery that cost him roughly two months, hit .141, and got designated for assignment in July. Arizona kept him when he cleared waivers, parked him in Triple-A Reno to rebuild timing, and recalled him around September 12. Since then he has posted a .333 line with a double, two homers, and four RBI across a handful of games. The September version looks nothing like the June version.
“There were lots of times this year where I didn’t feel like I could ever hit again,” Smith said. “I just didn’t have any timing, coming back from the surgery and then being able to go down to Reno was good for me. Just being able to trust that that was going to be a good thing, didn’t complain about it, and was able to work through it and find myself again.”
That is the process talk that actually maps to the results. Manager Torey Lovullo has been saying the same thing in public for months. “I’m never looking to be proven right. I’m just trying to put players in the best position to be successful and when they have success I share it with them. But I do believe Pavin can hit.” After the hug at home plate Lovullo went further: “I was like a proud dad when I hugged him and said, ‘Congratulations. Let’s enjoy this as a team. You did this, and we won this game because of you.’”
Smith himself drew the 2001 line without prompting. “Gonzo hit a walk-off about 25 years ago and to be able to do it on the (celebration) night is pretty cool. It’s a full stadium. It was a playoff-like atmosphere. Every pitch felt like it mattered more and to pull it out in the end feels good.” Lovullo felt the same current: “There was a ton of energy in the stadium, so maybe there was a little bit of magic somewhere in these rafters that everybody picked up on.”
Seven Games Left and the Manager’s Clock Is Loud
The win snapped a three-game skid and became Arizona’s 46th comeback victory of the season. It also left the Diamondbacks at 81-74, four games behind the Phillies for the final National League Wild Card berth with seven to play. Chicago and San Diego both won Saturday, so the Phillies are now the closest chase. Arizona still finishes the year with three against San Diego, but the math is simple: win almost everything left or go home.
Lovullo’s own future sits inside that same math. In the final year of the extension he signed after the 2023 World Series run, he told local radio the club “probably” needed October baseball for him to return in 2027. Before Saturday’s game he added the only framing that matters to the roster: “I’ve had to fight for everything in my career, so I’m used to that, and my job here is … for the 28 players and 22 coaches, to be present for them.” After the win he kept the same posture. “Our backs are against the wall. We know that.” And on Smith specifically: “Great moment for Pavin, even greater moment for this team… they are fighting with everything they have, and it’s very inspiring.”
I am not romanticizing a one-night script. The mechanism is clearer than the magic. A player who lost his timing to surgery and a DFA used a Triple-A reset to get the barrel back, then delivered the highest-leverage swing of Arizona’s September on the exact night the franchise celebrated its highest-leverage swing ever. The Yankees already had their playoff berth punched. The Diamondbacks still have seven games and a four-game deficit. Smith’s 391-foot answer bought them one more night of oxygen. Everything else is still scoreboard watching.
