Carroll's 8th Inning Grand Slam the Game Winner for Diamondbacks

Carroll's two homer, five RBI game drove the D-backs to victory in a must win game against the New York Mets.

Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll (7) hits a grand slam in the eighth inning to take the lead 8-5 on Aug. 28, 2024 at Chase Field in Phoenix. / Owen Ziliak/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

Corbin Carroll's turnaround has been happening for a while now, but at this point he is in full on breakout mode. Wednesday night his clutch two-out grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning turned a 5-4 deficit into an 8-5 victory for the Arizona Diamondbacks over the New York Mets.

It was Carroll's second home run of the game and 17th of the year. His first homer was a 440 foot blast onto the home run porch in right center. The second homer traveled 396 feet over the right field fence. It came on a 90 MPH slider at the bottom of the zone from Mets relief ace Edwin Diaz, who blew his 6th save of the year.

Amazing Corbin Carroll power surge continues with clutch grand slam to put #Dbacks up 8-5.

His second homer of game 17th of the year

pic.twitter.com/DqIzXRXoGI

— Jack Sommers (@shoewizard59) August 29, 2024

On July 6th Carroll was batting just .210/.298/.310, .608 OPS with just two homers and 23 RBI. Over his last 42 games he's hit 15 homers and raised his slash line to .225/.311/.414, .725 OPS with 65 RBI. While rise in batting average has been slow and steady, it's the power surge that really stands out.

The D-backs had an early 4-0 lead over the Mets starter Luis Severino. That was thanks to a two-run homer from Pederson in the third inning and Carroll's homer in the fourth. Luis Guillorme also had an RBI base hit in the second inning.

Eduardo Rodriguez got off a terrific start, throwing four perfect innings to be begin the game. He melted down in the fifth inning however, allowing four Mets runs on four hits, including a two-run homer from Harrison Bader.

The Mets took the lead in the sixth thanks to Starling Marte. He singled, stole second, advanced to third on a grounder, and scored on a sacrifice fly to left field by Pete Alonso. The combination of Marte's terrific slide, moving his hand around the tag, and Adrian Del Castillo's failure to execute a swipe tag allowed the go-ahead run to score.

Trailing 5-4, the D-backs bullpen took over. Kevin Ginkel had relieved Rodriguez int he sixth and gave up the sac fly to allow just his fourth inherited runner out of 20 this season to score. He came back out and pitched a scoreless seventh. He was followed by Ryan Thompson who pitched a scoreless eighth.

Justin Martinez retired the side in order in the ninth, picking up his 7th save of the year. Thompson got the victory, going to 7-3.

The D-backs are now 77-57, but remain three games behind in the NL West as the Dodgers also won. The Padres lost to the Cardinals in the bottom of the ninth in St. Louis, and fall a full game behind Arizona.

The Arizona Diamondbacks will go for the series victory tomorrow behind Ryne Nelson. Left-hander David Peterson has been moved up in the rotation and will start for the Mets. Game time is 12:40 p.m. MST, 3:40 p.m. EST.