First they took down the National League Central champions. Then they knocked out the NL West champions. Of all the rousing Arizona Diamondbacks victories this October, though, their 6-5 come-from-behind win in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series on Friday against the Philadelphia Phillies might have best illustrated who the Diamondbacks are.
Not the most well-known. Not the most talented. But in baseball, in the crapshoot that is the postseason, none of that matters.
“Hopefully when we do things like this,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said, “the baseball world sees that the Arizona Diamondbacks are a damn good baseball team.”
How could anyone conclude otherwise after Arizona tied the series Friday? It wasn’t just the dramatic, score-tying, pinch-hit two-run homer from outfielder Alek Thomas off Craig Kimbrel in the eighth inning or the go-ahead RBI single from catcher Gabriel Moreno four batters later. Short on starting pitching, the Diamondbacks cobbled together a bullpen game that could have spiraled into a disaster but instead kept the score close enough for the team’s too-young-to-know-any-better core to deliver.
Thomas, Moreno, All-Star outfielder Corbin Carroll and shortstop Geraldo Perdomo are all 23 years old, and each has excelled at some point this postseason in which the Diamondbacks went from the team with the worst record on the field to two wins from the World Series.