PHOENIX — It wasn’t until after Ketel Marte’s walk-off hit, the first by a Diamondback in the postseason since Luis González did it to win the 2001 World Series, that he really started running. The single was a no-doubter, a line drive that falls 95% of the time. The chase Marte’s teammates gave him as he darted into the outfield in celebration was much more competitive.
“I sprinted so hard,” he said happily after it was over and Arizona had secured a 2–1 win in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series to cut the Phillies’ series lead to 2–1. Shortstop Geraldo Perdomo, whose hard-fought walk gave the Diamondbacks’ hottest hitter a chance to be a hero, caught up with him in short center, grabbed him by the waist and hoisted him into the air.
“I don’t know why I’m not fast on the bases,” Perdomo lamented with a laugh.
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
On Thursday, he didn’t need to be. The Diamondbacks entered the ninth inning with the game tied 1–1, the bottom of the order due up and Phillies closer Craig Kimbrel on the mound. Kimbrel walked the leadoff hitter, left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who quickly stole second. Kimbrel left a fastball in the middle of the plate for DH Pavin Smith, who singled Gurriel to third. Third baseman Emmanuel Rivera grounded to shortstop and the Phillies got Gurriel at home, giving Perdomo runners on first and second with one out.
He went down 1–2, including a huge cut on a curveball at his ankles, and reminded himself to stay disciplined. Marte, who has six of the Diamondbacks’ 17 hits this series, loomed. The next three pitches missed.
“I thought the key to that inning was Perdomo walking and handing it off to Ketel,” said Arizona manager Torey Lovullo. “But Ketel thrives in that situation. He just has the heart of a lion.”
Marte took a strike, then saw a fastball above the zone. He shortened his swing and slapped it into center.
“I’m not a pressure guy,” Marte said. “I know what kind of hitter I am.”
Ketel Marte WALKS IT OFF for the @Dbacks! #NLCS pic.twitter.com/8R5vSdRzrZ
— MLB (@MLB) October 19, 2023
Through six, he was one of two Diamondbacks with a hit. But Arizona, whose starters had allowed nine runs in the first two games, unexpectedly received a gem from a 25-year-old rookie with a 5.72 ERA in the regular season. Brandon Pfaadt gave the Diamondbacks everything they could possibly have hoped for: 5 2/3 scoreless innings, two hits, no walks, nine strikeouts. The crowd booed when Lovullo removed him in the sixth with Kyle Schwarber at bat for the third time.
“I was booing myself as I walked out to the mound,” said Lovullo, adding that he had asked his coaches “whether the manager is an idiot after taking him out after 5 2/3.” But this season hitters had a .703 OPS against Pfaadt the first time they saw him. That figure rose to .859 the second time. It was 1.193 the third time.
“I’m sure I was the most unpopular guy in the city of Phoenix, in the downtown area, and maybe in the entire state of Arizona,” Lovullo said. “I want everybody to know that is trying to think along with me that we have a strategy. I have a strategy for everything that’s done. Everything that’s done has been well talked about. It’s not just analytics. I know how quickly playoff baseball can change, and I felt like Brandon kept the game under control, and it was time to turn it over.”
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The decision worked. Four relievers combined to allow one run by a team that has averaged 5.75 allowed per game this postseason. That one came in the seventh on a walk, a single, a groundout and a wild pitch. The Diamondbacks tied the game immediately with three straight hits but failed to capitalize on first and third with nobody out.
“There were some inner workings of our base running that were not very good,” Lovullo said. “I talked to the bench coach, Jeff Bannister, about that. I’m getting ready to hit up the base coaches. We have to tie some things down to be the team we are.”
That team will face a steep challenge the rest of the way. The Diamondbacks lack a fourth starter and will instead turn to the bullpen in Friday’s Game 4, while the Phillies will use lefty Cristopher Sánchez, who had a 3.44 ERA in 99 1/3 innings this year and boasts one of the best changeups in the sport. The Phillies have outscored the Diamondbacks 16–5 so far this series, and it was not until the fourth inning of Game 3 that a Philadelphia starter walked a batter. In order to advance to the World Series, the Diamondbacks will need to win at least one game at Citizens Bank Park, which an opposing coach once called “four hours of hell.”
But the Diamondbacks have made it a series, and as they showed on Thursday, anything can happen. And they know what kind of team they are.
