PHOENIX -- Conversations in the dugout in critical moments have to come quick, because the game moves fast down there.
Looking at his lineup card with the bottom of the ninth coming up, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo knew he was likely going to pinch-hit for Jorge Barrosa, the No. 9 hitter in the order and the fourth player due up in the inning.
Lovullo had some options on his bench. There was Jose Fernandez, Ryan Waldschmidt and James McCann, all right-handed hitters.
Lovullo went over to his hitting coaches -- Joe Mather, Damion Easley and Travis Denker -- and asked who they thought should be the one to step up. "Give us a minute to talk it over," they told him.
"The game is moving at warp speed, and I'm having four or five different conversations, and it's, you know, in 25-second segments," Lovullo said. "I said, 'Think about it. I'll come back in one minute.' I went back one minute later. ‘Do you have an answer?’ ‘No.’ I went back in one minute after that. ‘Do you have an answer?’ ‘No.’ So they dragged it out as best they could, and they said [send] Waldy for the at-bat. And I trust those hitting coaches. I trust those boys. They're outstanding."
Summing up the group's thinking in the aftermath, Mather said the group looked at the fact that it would be the fourth hitter of the inning, so they might not need a home run in that spot. They liked the consistency they had seen from Waldschmidt since he was recalled from Triple-A Reno on July 10. Plus, Waldschmidt did already have a walk-off homer this month against Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz.
"Waldschmidt," they told Lovullo, who didn't have time to ask for their reasoning and simply trusted it.
Waldschmidt knew at some point he might be called on to pinch-hit, so in the seventh with the Diamondbacks down 4-0, he spent time preparing in the batting cage to face a left-hander like Ryan Rolison, since he's usually called upon to face lefties in those situations.
When the Diamondbacks rallied for three runs in the eighth and Waldschmidt saw Jordan Lawlar, who had been hitting ninth, have to leave the game after being hit in the helmet by a pitch, his calculus changed.
"I went in in the bottom of the eighth and got ready with some right-handed stuff just in case I got my name called there, and I was ready to go," Waldschmidt said.
This is Waldschmidt's second stint in the big leagues this year after opening the year as the club's top prospect per MLB Pipeline. One of the biggest adjustments he has made the second time around is from a mental standpoint.
When he first got called up, he was eager to make an impression, and every at-bat took on outsized importance. This time around, he realizes that no at-bat, regardless of how important, is a life or death situation.
As Waldschmidt stepped into the box, he was aware that right-handed closer Jacob Webb's pitch mix was about 50-50 between fastballs and offspeed offerings.
"Being a pinch-hitter, I went up looking for the fastball," Waldschmidt said.
Webb's first pitch was a slider, a good pitch to hit, but Waldschmidt was sitting fastball, and he wasn't going to stray from his plan that early in the count.
The second pitch was a fastball, but it was just off the outside corner, so he took it for a ball. The third pitch was a changeup that he also took for a ball.
Webb then came back with another slider, this one in almost the same spot as the first -- right down the middle. And Waldschmidt pounced on it and sent it over the left-field wall.
"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," Waldschmidt said. "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 ball landed in the seats as the Diamondbacks walked off the Cubs, 5-4. With the win and the Padres' loss, they pulled to within one game of San Diego in the race for the final NL Wild Card spot.
It was Waldschmidt's third career homer and, remarkably, his second of the walk-off variety. He's the only MLB player with multiple walk-off homers when trailing this year, and only Baltimore's Colton Cowser and Waldschmidt's own teammate Ketel Marte have two walk-off homers in general.
His second walk-off also became the first pinch-hit walk-off homer by a rookie in franchise history.
Waldschmidt is also one of five players to have two walk-off homers within their first three career homers, joining Will Smith, James McCann, Kevin Romine and pitcher Kirby Higbe.