PHOENIX -- Most of them knew.
Yes, they were focused on their game with the Marlins on Monday night, but scoreboard watching during a pennant race is a real thing. And so, by the time the seventh inning rolled around, most of the Diamondbacks knew that the Padres, who lead Arizona in the battle for the final NL Wild Card spot, had beaten the Rockies.
One of them didn't, and he was the one who delivered the biggest blow of the night.
Corbin Carroll's one-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning resulted in the Diamondbacks walking off the Marlins, 8-7, at Chase Field.
Had they not found a way to rally, the Diamondbacks would have slipped to 3 1/2 games behind the Padres -- not completely dire given that the two teams play a three-game series to end the regular season in San Diego, but it would have been Arizona's third loss in a row. It could have started to spiral.
Instead, it might be the night when the momentum of the race shifted towards the Diamondbacks.
"We kept plowing away at it, and it was a great win," Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. "We know what was going on around us. We haven't been playing great baseball, and to win a game like that today is, in my opinion, one of those catalyst type of games that pushes you forward and gets you ready for the next day."
The Diamondbacks trailed, 7-4, after seven innings, before Jordan Lawlar hit a two-run homer in the eighth to make it a one-run game.
In the ninth, Miami closer Pete Fairbanks opened the inning by walking Gabriel Moreno, and he threw one pitch to Geraldo Perdomo before leaving the game due to injury and being replaced by Jack Ralston.
Perdomo bunted pinch-runner Tommy Troy to second to bring Carroll to the plate.
Carroll had begun to prepare himself for his at-bat during the long break in the action while Ralston warmed up, formulating in his mind a game plan for his at-bat.
"I had a lot of confidence Perdomo was going to do his job," Carroll said. "So I had an idea that there would be a runner on second, and was just kind of thinking through his pitches and what he might be likely to go with."
With first base open, Carroll wanted to remain patient and hunt a pitch in the middle of the zone.
That's exactly what he got when Ralston hung a splitter on a 2-1 count and Carroll crushed it to right for a home run.
It hasn't been an easy stretch for Carroll. He's been playing through a lower back issue, and though he refuses to use it as an excuse, it's clearly something that has impacted him. In his previous 65 plate appearances before the homer, Carroll was 8-for-59 (.136).
"We know what Corbin's been grinding through," Lovullo said. "We watch it every single day, you guys included. But he continues to fight, and he commits. He commits to what he's going to do in the box. He commits to being present and engaged in the box, he commits to being a great teammate and coming through, and it was a good moment for him."
And for his team, which avoided falling further behind the Padres, not that the ever-focused Carroll was aware of it.
"Honestly, I didn't know they won," Carroll said. "I didn't know they won today. I missed that one."
The hanging splitter, though? That, he didn't miss.