The Arizona Diamondbacks shocked the Philadelphia Phillies to take Game 4 of the NLCS and even up the best-of-seven series at 2-2 on Friday night. It looked like the Phillies would be one win away from winning back-to-back NL pennants. And yet, the final score says 6-5 Diamondbacks.
Here's how it went down.
Diamondbacks storm back in 8th
The Phillies had a 5-3 lead heading to the bottom of the eighth. Craig Kimbrel and José Alvarado were left in their bullpen and, at least as far they were concerned, that should've meant a victory. The Diamondbacks had other ideas.
Kimbrel was in to start the eighth and allowed a double to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. before getting an out. He then gave up a game-tying home run to pinch hitter Alek Thomas.
Thomas becomes the youngest player to ever have a pinch-hit, game-tying homer in the eighth inning or later in a playoff game.
The Diamondbacks' work wasn't done, nor was Kimbrel's. After a strikeout, leadoff man Ketel Marte singled and then Corbin Carroll was hit by a pitch. Alvarado appeared to just get back up in the bullpen right before Carroll stepped in the box. It seems malpractice that Alvarado wasn't ready to face to Carroll, given the lefty-lefty matchup it would've set up, not to mention Kimbrel's issues in the inning.
Kimbrel stayed, though, and hit Carroll with a pitch.
Alvarado then entered the game. He fell behind 3-0. After a strike, 23-year-old catcher Gabriel Moreno came through with what would prove to be the game-winning hit.
This was a failure by Kimbrel and Phillies manager Rob Thomson, but also an incredible effort by the D-backs offense. Credit the winners.
Phillies break through, but not enough
The Phillies appeared to take control of this game in the sixth inning with two runs for their first lead. They took advantage of the D-backs handing them every opportunity to score, though it wasn't quite enough advantage as it would turn out.
Diamondbacks reliever Andrew Saalfrank walked Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper to load the bases before he was removed from the game. Setup man Ryan Thompson was summoned from the bullpen and coaxed a grounder off the bat of Alec Bohm, but it was in a bad spot compared to where the Diamondbacks' defenders were positioned. It would end up being ruled an infield single, correctly, but the throw home got away and allowed Turner, the speedster, to fly around third and score himself.
After that, Bryson Stott walked. It could have been so much worse. It looked like the proverbial wheels were gonna fall off for the home team. Rewind back to the play where Turner scored on a throwing error. Well, Bohm attempted to reach second and was thrown out. And then JT Realmuto struck out and Nick Castellanos grounded out to end the threat.
All things considered, that was a big inning for the Phillies but it ended up not being quite the disaster it was shaping up to be for Arizona. It could also be argued the D-backs handed the Phillies this inning before buckling down and preventing it from becoming worse.
Whatever the case, it ended up being a net positive for the D-backs after Turner crossed the plate. The Phillies could have won had they tacked on more and taken better advantage of the gifts.
Marte, Moreno leading D-backs
Marte in the leadoff spot went 2 for 4 and scored twice. Moreno in the three hole was 2 for 3 with two walks and two RBI. Moreno drove Marte home twice in this one.
There's been a lot of focus on the star power the Phillies have, so any big-time Diamondbacks performances have been a bit overshadowed -- that'll happen when one team jumps out to a 2-0 lead -- but let's not overlook this duo.
Through nine playoff games, Marte is hitting .385/.415/.641 with four doubles, two homers, five RBI and six runs. He's the established star of the ballclub, as a former All-Star and the highest-paid remaining player (believe it or not, their actual highest paid player is Madison Bumgarner).
The budding young star of the D-backs is Carroll, but Moreno isn't far behind. He put up a 4.3 WAR season in only 111 games in 2023. Through the first nine playoff games of his career, he's hitting .267/.353/.600 with a double, three homers and eight RBI.
The game winner was, fittingly, Moreno driving home Marte.
Schwarber moving up record books
Kyle Schwarber hit another LCS home run to get the Phillies on the board:
Most left-handed home runs in playoff history:
19 - Kyle Schwarber
18 - Reggie Jackson
Most home runs in LCS history
13 - Manny Ramirez
11 - Kyle Schwarber
Most home runs in playoff history
29 - Manny Ramirez
26 - Jose Altuve
22 - Bernie Williams
20 - Derek Jeter
19 - Albert Pujols, George Springer, Kyle Schwarber
Not too shabby, huh?
Bullpenmania
The Diamondbacks didn't hide the fact that this was a bullpen game for them. No opener with a "length" guy behind. No starter with a quick leash. No, it was a bullpen game. Former All-Star reliever Joe Mantiply started and got three outs with 14 pitches before being removed and they were off.
On the Phillies' side, Christopher Sánchez was the starter and he took 18 starts in the regular season, sometimes working deep into the game, but he hadn't done so since Sept. 24 and hadn't thrown a pitch in game action since Sept. 30, when he threw just nine pitches. He lasted 2 1/3 innings before he was pulled.
The Phillies would end up using eight pitchers. The D-backs matched them with eight arms of their own.
It is often discussed that the more relievers a team uses, the higher the chances are that at least one of those relievers has a meltdown inning that spurs the other team to victory. Both teams used a lot of bullpen arms in this one, and it proved to be true with the middle-inning guys for Arizona and, more extremely, the Phillies' late-inning guys.
Next up: Game 5 Saturday
Chase Field will once again host an NLCS game, with Game 5 taking place at 8:07 p.m. ET on Saturday. It'll be a rematch of Game 1 aces on the mound, with Zac Gallen starting for the D-backs and Zack Wheeler getting the ball for the Phillies.
Things will feel different due to atmosphere, obviously, for the two teams, but performance could be totally different as well. Gallen gave up five runs on eight hits in his five Game 1 innings in Philly, but this regular season he had a 2.47 ERA at home vs. 4.42 on the road. He's a totally different pitcher in Chase Field.
For anyone wondering if Wheeler is far worse away from home, like Gallen, though, he's actually been better on the road this season. He had a 4.13 home ERA and 3.16 ERA in his 17 road starts. He took a no-hitter into the sixth inning against the mighty Braves' offense in Atlanta in Game 2 of the NLDS.
Whatever team wins this game takes control of the series before it heads back to Philadelphia on Monday night for Game 6. It looked like the Phillies would have a chance to clinch the NL in Arizona, but thanks to the late comeback, the Diamondbacks could close things down before even facing elimination. That's how quickly things can turn in playoff baseball.
