Quick Recap of Arizona Diamondbacks’ Road to the World Series

The Diamondbacks have amazing season so far and are 4 games away from an ultimate turnaround as they finish the last three seasons with a losing record and with a 74-88 record in 2022. This season they finished with an 84-78 record and were the last wildcard team to make playoffs with three teams (Cubs, Reds, and Padres) just one or two games behind them. Possibly the biggest regular season game for both Diamondbacks and Cubs happened on September 26th as the Cubs were leading 6-5 in the bottom of the 8th inning with an easy fly ball coming to Seiya Suzuki who dropped the ball leading to 2 scored runs and a loss. And that game wasn’t played against the Diamondbacks if you think it was, it was a game in Atlanta against the Braves. But you need some luck to get to the World Series at some point in your season. 

With that close call to get to the playoffs the Diamondbacks faced only division winner in the Wild Card round in the Milwaukee Brewers and they looked great in those two wins as they led in both games by the wnd of 6th inning. Peralta and Burnes took losses for the Brewers and the Diamondbacks showed that they can surprise the Dodgers in the Divisional Round.

In the NLDS they left the whole Baseball world spechless as they swept the Dodgers and allowed only 6 runs across three games (2 runs in each game). They came out guns blazing in 1st game as they put 11 runs in total on the Dodgers and 6 of them came in 1st inning against Clayton Kershaw, in total in 1st two innings they scored 9 runs and that game was in the books early. That was a recipe for the whole series as they were up 3-0 and 4-0 at the end of the 3rd inning in games 2 and 3. The pitching was marvelous as starters Kelly, Gallen, and Pfaadt allowed only 2 runs across 16 innings as which was the key to winning this series. Their offense was clicking at this point and with the great performance of their pitchers they could give real problems to the Phillies in the NLCS.

This series didn’t start well for the Diamondbacks as they lost the first two games and the Phillies had control of both games from the start. They were down by 3 or more runs in both games before the last few innings and everything that went well in 1st two rounds went bad for the first two games of the NLCS. With their best pitchers, Gallen and Kelly suffering hard losses in Games 1 and 2 most of us thought that the Diamondbacks’ playoff run was finished. But in home games 3 and 4 Pfaadt and bullpen stepped up as they tied the series and were again in the hunt to make it to the World Series. Both games were finished late as they scored winning runs in the 8th and 9th innings. With this positive momentum, everything was ready for massive game 5 in Arizona with Gallen and Wheeler taking the mound. Diamondbacks scored only one run and Gallen again didn’t impress allowing 4 runs in 6 innings with the Phillies taking a big 3-2 lead back to Philadelphia. In Game 6 with their season on the line, Kelly outperformed Aaron Nola and led the Diamondbacks to an ultimate Game 7. Kelly played great 5 innings allowing only 1 run as they had a 4-1 lead at the point in the game. The bullpen was once again great as they allowed only 3 baserunners over the last 4 innings. Pfaadt and Suarez faced at the start of Game 7 but as most expected bullpen of both teams played a big part in the deciding game and once again Diamondbacks had a better bullpen as they again didn’t allow any runs and only 3 baserunners over 5 innings. It is fair to say that the Diamondbacks’ bullpen played a big part in 3 wins and their run to the World Series. 

Now they face the Rangers in the World Series and again start off the road with Gallen facing Eovaldi who has been amazing in playoffs with a 4-0 record and 2.42 ERA. Can they shock the world again? It will be another great series as they both bring the same 9-3 playoff record to the field. The Rangers have a slight advantage but the Diamondbacks don’t care about that as they have been underdogs in every series so far.

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