Wow. Just wow. Where to begin with this one…
The first two games of the series had already run the spectrum for the Diamondbacks. Friday's opener was a sloppy, mistake-filled loss, while Saturday's contest featured the kind of crisp, fundamentally sound baseball that usually fuels the team when they go on a run. That set the stage for Sunday afternoon, with the Diamondbacks looking to not only secure their first series win coming out of the All-Star break, but also claim the season series against the Cardinals, something that could carry substantial Wild Card implications down the road. And they couldn't have asked for a better pitcher to take the ball than Eduardo Rodriguez. Arizona's de facto ace entered the game with an 8-3 record and an otherworldly 2.29 ERA.
Then the game started.
With ERod taking the mound Arizona had every reason to feel good about their chances – for exactly one inning. After that, the Cardinals ambushed him, tagging him for seven hits and five runs before chasing him from the game with two outs in the third inning. As the deficit grew, so did the frustration inside Chase Field, with some fans greeting Rodriguez's work and early exit with boos. Your mileage may vary, but as I noted in the GDT, that felt a little bush league to me. A pitcher who carried a 2.29 ERA into the game and has been Arizona’s best starter by far has earned a bad afternoon or two.
By the bottom of the sixth, the Diamondbacks trailed 7-0 and it appeared the game would be lost before the ballpark stopped serving beer. Cardinals starter Andre Pallante had retired 13 of the first 15 batters he faced, and the conversation in the GDT had largely shifted to: A. Fire the manager. B. Were they really booing or was it Cardinals fans yelling, “NOOOT?” (I admit, I hadn’t even entertained that possibility but it’s as good a theory as anything else) C. Spain!! D. Andy’s vs. Culver’s (Andy’s all the way). Among other things.
The Diamondbacks began to show signs of life with three consecutive hits, finally breaking through against Pallante and putting Arizona on the board. Two more runs followed courtesy of bases-loaded walks. It wasn't exactly an offensive explosion so much as the Cardinals pitchers briefly forgetting where the strike zone was located, but at 7-3 there began rumblings at the possibility of a comeback. Most of us have been hurt before, of course.
The comeback gained a bit more traction when Geraldo Perdomo delivered one of the strangest plays of the season, an inside-the-park home run aided generously by a Cardinals outfield misplay. The two-run score suddenly made it 7-5, and a thread that had spent much of the afternoon alternating between frustration, anger and resignation was fully re-engaged when the eighth inning happened.
Facing his former club, Nolan Arenado entered the inning hitless in three at-bats before finally making his mark. His two-run homer tied the game at 7-7 and completed a rally that seemed impossible just a couple of innings earlier. It was poetic justice for a player who spent many of his best years in St. Louis, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
More frustration was to be had in the ninth inning. Three horrendous at bats by Marte, Perdomo, and Barrosa (pinch-hitting for Corbin Carrol, more on this in a moment), brought back the collective “here we go again.” The Cardinals subsequently threatened to reclaim the lead in the tenth. With a runner on third and one out, Arizona found itself just ninety feet away from one of the most potentially heartbreaking losses of the season. Instead, Perdomo came through again, picking Ivan Herrera off first base for an inning-ending double play. In a game full of questionable life choices, it was an especially costly one for St. Louis.
After spending most of the afternoon convincing everyone they were dead, the Diamondbacks objected vigorously once the burial arrangements had been finalized. With Barrosa serving as the Manfred Man, Max Kepler delivered the game's final blow, driving him home for a walk-off victory and an impressive series win.
Of course, because this is Arizona sports, and we are not allowed nice things, the comeback came with an asterisk. Carroll's season-long battle at the plate continued, and his afternoon ended when he appeared to injure himself on a strikeout swing in the seventh inning. No update as of this writing, but suffice it to say that despite his recent struggles, and knowing he will eventually get back on track, Carroll is the one player the Diamondbacks can ill-afford to lose if they are to contend for a Wild Card spot.
For six innings, the Diamondbacks were left for dead. By the eighth inning, the deceased was sitting up in the gurney. By the tenth, it was walking around greeting fans. Arizona somehow overcame an early 7-0 deficit, survived their ace's shortest outing of the year, got an inside-the-park home run aided by an error, watched Arenado tie the game against his former club, escaped a 10th inning Cardinals lead with a heads-up pickoff, and walked away with one of their wildest wins of the season. The Diamondbacks are now only half a game behind the Cardinals for the third Wild Card, and have won 5 of six games against heavyweights L.A. and St. Louis. I think we will all take that.
Very fun and engaged GDT, with a whopping 370 comments as of this writing. Several comments went Sedona, but this one really isn’t a contest, as I knew this one was it the second it was posted. COD (posted below because I cannot figure out how to paste snips within the text in this thing) goes to Xerostomia for this explanation of the Diamondbacks’ early struggles.
I now turn this over to Jim for the bells and whistles, I can’t WAIT to see the win probability graph on this one. Thank you all for watching this incredibly entertaining game with me. See you next time!