Diamondbacks Shock The Phillies, Will Play Rangers In The World Series

The Arizona Diamondbacks played a flawless game Tuesday night to beat the Phillies 4-2 and win the National League Pennant. The D’Backs played their brand of baseball—what they call chaos baseball: getting on base however you can, stealing bases, playing lockdown defense, and executing every single pitch as if it is the last one you’ll ever throw in your life.

Rookie Corbin Carroll led the charge at the plate after disappearing in the first 6 games of the series. Carroll hits 3 singles, stole 2 bases, scored 2 runs, and hit a critical run-scoring sacrifice fly. That’s the kind of offensive havoc Carroll caused all season and that will likely make him the NL Rookie of the Year.

Gabby Moreno, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and Geraldo Perdomo also contributed 2 hits—and Gurriel added a stolen base—in a balanced Arizona attack.

The contrast with the Phillies could not be more stark. When the Phillies are in the groove, they hit dingers, they hit doubles, they hit loud singles, they score a lot of runs, and they generally pitch just well enough to win. Zack Wheeler, the team’s ace, is the exception to the “just well enough” description.

Perfectly-executed Diamondbacks pitching kept the Phillies from getting the groove in Game 7, just like they did in Game 6. In fact, the Phillies offense sputtered an awful lot after the they blasted the D’Backs 10-0 in Game 2 of the series.

In Games 3-7, the Phillies hit 5-for 34 (.147) with runners in scoring position. Solo home runs can win you games, but if you don’t hit those solo shots, you have to score runners standing on second or third. The Phillies did not. The Phillies didn’t even have a hit after the 5th inning.

Much like Rangers manager Bruce Bochy had done on Monday night, D’Backs manager Torey Lovullo used his pitchers in just the right spots in the game. Rookie phenom Brandon Pfaadt—who was unhittable in Game 3—did yield 2 runs to the Phillies on an Alec Bohm solo home run in the 2nd and a run-scoring double to Bryson Stott in the 4th, after walking Bohm.

That was it.

Even after the Phillies loaded the bases in that same inning, Lovullo trusted Pfaadt to get the third out with light-hitting center fielder Johan Rojas at the plate. Rojas can be a free swinger and Pfaadt took full advantage by placing a 1-2 sweeper far outside the zone. Rojas could not hold up. That was the end of the Phillies’ last real threat.

Arizona relievers Joe Mantiply, Ryan Thompson, Andrew Saalfrank, Kevin Ginkel, and Paul Seward combined to throw 5 innings while allowing 0 runs. Mantiply allowed 1 hit. The rest allowed none.

So far in the postseason, Ginkel and Sewald’s combined stats are eye-popping: 17 IP, 9 H, 4 BB, 24 K, 0.00 ERA.

The stats for the Phillies’ key hitters are a reflection of just how strong the D’Backs pitching was after Game 2.

Bryce Harper’s last hit in the series came in Game 5.

Trea Turner’s last hit in the series was a 1st inning single in Game 4.

Nick Castellanos went hitless after Game 1.

Still, the game might have turned out differently if Phillies manager Rob Thomson had acted with the same urgency his counterpart did in getting the right pitchers in at the right time. In the top of the 5th, with the Phillies leading 2-1, Thomson let starter Ranger Suarez face Corbin Carroll for a third time after Carroll had singled off Suarez in the 1st and 3rd. Emmanuel Rivera stood on 2nd base as the tying run when Carroll came to the plate with 2 outs.

Single. Game tied.

Only then did Thomson go to his bullpen, but instead of bringing in Zack Wheeler—the Phillies’ pitching hero in the series—Thomson called for Jeff Hoffman to face Gabby Moreno. Carroll promptly stole 2nd base and scored when Moreno singled on a line drive to right field. The D’Backs took a 3-2 lead and never looked back.

Wheeler eventually took the ball with 2 outs in the 7th inning and the D’Backs leading 4-2. He shut the D’Backs down over 1 2/3 but it was too late to make a difference.

The Phillies lost control of the series in Game 4 when Craig Kimbrel gave up 3 runs in the 8th inning, turning a 5-3 Phillies lead into a 6-5 D’Backs win. It’s easy to say in hindsight that Rob Thomson shouldn’t have pitched Kimbrel in a game-defining moment in Game 4 after Kimbrel’s miserable performance in Game 3 where he loaded the bases in the 9th in a 1-1 game and gave up a game-winning hit to eventual NLCS MVP Ketel Marte.

But we don’t need hindsight to know that Thomson made a mistake relying on Kimbrel in Game 4. All of the signs were there. The 35-year-old closer recorded 11 meltdown innings this season, the highest in his career. He have up 10 home runs, also a career high, and that translated to a 1.3 HR-per-9 innings ratio. That is not the kind of numbers you want to see from your closer.

As I discussed in my write up of Game 4, Thomson backed himself into using Kimbrel in the 8th by deploying too many other relievers earlier in the game. Torey Lovullo ran circles around Thomson in this series. If the Phillies mash like they often do, it Lovullo’s smart strategic moves don’t matter. But the Phillies didn’t mash in Games 6 and 7, magnifying Thomson’s poor in-game strategies.

There will be a winter of What Ifs for the Phillies.

For the Diamondbacks, it’s a trip to Arlington, Texas for the Game 1 and 2 of the 2023 World Series. I’ll have my X-Factors newsletter out on Friday.