Paul Sewald does not like to watch games after he has pitched in them.
This is primarily because he does not like games to happen after he has pitched in them. Such is life for a closer: For Sewald to take the ball for the ninth, leave the field and have any game left to watch, something must have gone very wrong. Yet this was the position in which he found himself during Game 1 of the World Series on Friday.
The Diamondbacks closer entered with a two-run lead in the ninth. He left without it. A two-run home run by Rangers shortstop Corey Seager meant extra innings, and while going through his usual cooldown work in the trainers’ room, Sewald could watch them only on television. This is his least favorite way to watch a game—“nerve-wracking,” he says, far worse than any viewing experience from the bullpen or in the dugout. And so it was on TV, out of the game, nerves wracked, that he watched fellow Diamondbacks reliever Miguel Castro allow an eleventh-inning, walk-off shot to Rangers right fielder Adolis García.
