Tuesday night in the desert had everything. A division rivalry game between the Diamondbacks and Dodgers that was already tight turned into something else entirely when bodies started hitting the dirt at first base. Then Ketel Marte decided he'd seen enough and walked it off.
The collision itself was the kind you watch through your fingers. Muncy hustling down the line, Vargas stretching for the throw, and the two of them meeting at the bag in a way nobody walks away clean from. Both guys went down. Both guys stayed down.
The wince-inducing contact play at first base that set the tone for the rest of the night.
Muncy and Vargas both exited the game after the wreck, which is a brutal blow for two lineups already grinding through a long season. The Dodgers can't really afford to lose Muncy's bat in the middle of the order, and the D-Backs needed Vargas's glove for the late innings of what was still a one-run ballgame.
The full collision sequence and the aftermath that sent both players out of the game.
And then, because baseball owes you nothing, the night still had its main character moment coming. Marte stepped in with the score knotted, took a swing, and absolutely pimped it. Bat flip, slow trot, mob scene at home plate. Diamondbacks 3, Dodgers 2. Game over. Martay Partay.
Marte's walk-off swing, the bat flip, and the home-plate dogpile.
It's the kind of swing that gets replayed all summer if Arizona makes a run. After the carnage at first base, the D-Backs needed a release valve, and their best hitter delivered it in the cleanest way possible. The Dodgers will get Muncy news in the morning. Everyone else gets to enjoy the highlight.