SAN DIEGO -- A season that started with a club-record payroll and featured crushing injuries and a Trade Deadline sell-off ended in frustration on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Petco Park as Arizona fell, 12-4, to the Padres.
The Diamondbacks, who were eliminated from postseason contention when they dropped Friday night's game, had a chance to finish the year at .500. But after being swept by the playoff-bound Padres, they will have to settle for 80-82.
There was little to cheer about for the Diamondbacks on Sunday until the top of the ninth inning, when shortstop Geraldo Perdomo picked up his 100th RBI of the year.
On Saturday, Perdomo, who could finish in the top five in the NL MVP balloting, hit his 20th home run. Both of those round numbers were something Perdomo's teammates and manager Torey Lovullo were hoping he would secure this weekend.
"That’s awesome," second baseman Ketel Marte said of Perdomo reaching 100 RBIs. "I’ve had good years, and I’ve never got to 100. For him, I’m not surprised. He works so hard. He knows how to hit -- he knows how to hit now. It was a great season. That’s awesome. He’s a good kid, and he deserves everything."
Lovullo had been looking to give Perdomo a day off for a while, but the shortstop insisted on playing every day to set an example for his teammates.
Perdomo wound up playing in 161 games, sitting out only on May 13.
"It was a good moment for the group, with all the circumstances surrounding the past three or four days," Lovullo said. "That was some good news that we all enjoy."
The rest of the day, and series for that matter, is one the Diamondbacks would rather forget. They finished the year on a five-game losing streak and watched the Reds celebrate winning the final NL Wild Card spot on Sunday with just 83 wins.
"I'm frustrated and probably beyond disappointed," Lovullo said. "You know, you start to reflect on what's going on and how close we came. These guys gave everything they had, that is perfectly clear to me. We played until last weekend, I'm proud of that. I'm very proud of that. But there's 1,000 things that went on during the course of the year that we could have done better to help us win baseball games, and we got to figure this out."
The process of doing that has begun, with the team having exit interviews with players over the weekend. That will continue early this week.
Lovullo cited missed opportunities early in the season, when the Diamondbacks did not play their usual crisp, fundamental baseball.
But the real story of the season was the number of devastating injuries. The Diamondbacks lost ace Corbin Burnes and two closers, A.J. Puk and Justin Martinez, to Tommy John surgery. At some point, the sheer amount of injuries seemed insurmountable.
The Diamondbacks, though, found their way back into the Wild Card race despite the injuries and the trading of key veterans at the Deadline.
In the end, though, it was not enough.