D-backs' early chaos dries up in Game 1 walk-off loss

ARLINGTON -- For eight thrilling innings, Game 1 of the 2023 World Series at Globe Life Park looked like a stellar introduction to "Diamondback baseball."

The D-backs wasted no time Friday showing the rest of the world the electrifying roller coaster that is their style, only to fall short in a heartbreaking, 6-5 walk-off loss when the previously stellar bullpen could not hold a two-run lead in the ninth, then surrendered a walk-off homer to Rangers October star Adolis García in the 11th.

It is only the second time in World Series history that a team has allowed a ninth-inning home run to tie a game and then another homer to lose it in extra innings. The first is, unfortunately, all too familiar to D-backs fans -- Game 4 of the 2001 World Series, when Byung-Hyun Kim gave up a walk-off home run to Derek Jeter. It bears remembering, however, that the D-backs endured that loss -- and another walk-off loss in Game 5 -- to rebound and win that Series in seven games.

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“I don't think any of these players were old enough to possibly remember what was going on at that time,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “I know we have some really big baseball fans; they probably remember. But I don't think anybody is connecting those dots.”

Undeterred after ace Zac Gallen was tagged for two first-inning runs, Arizona rallied and found itself two outs away from stealing Game 1 on the road. That is, until Paul Sewald, perfect in his first six save chances this postseason, served up a game-tying two-run homer to Corey Seager in the bottom of the ninth. García walked it off with a solo shot off Miguel Castro two innings later.

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"It's frustrating," Lovullo said. "This is how the game goes sometimes. And we've got to find a way to be resilient and adaptable and come out with a clean mind and do our best."

But don't expect to see any wholesale changes in Game 2. After all, Arizona -- for most of the night -- looked a lot like the club that shocked the Phillies by winning four of five games to close out the National League Championship Series.

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The D-backs stole four bases. They executed a sacrifice bunt. They had both a run-scoring double and a two-run triple. They hit the ball over the fence.

Oh, and they did it all after falling into a two-run hole in the opening inning of the World Series on the road.

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"That’s just the nature of the postseason," said veteran third baseman Evan Longoria. "I feel like if we continue to play the type of game that we played today, we’re going to put ourselves in plenty of good spots to win the Series."

While much of the focus -- and rightfully so -- will be on Sewald faltering for the first time in October or Texas' two hottest hitters delivering the decisive blows, the fact is Arizona only played "Diamondback baseball" for the first half of Game 1.

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Trailing by two, Alek Thomas and Longoria opened the third with back-to-back singles. Geraldo Perdomo moved them over with a sacrifice bunt before Corbin Carroll drove them in with a two-run triple.

One batter later, Carroll raced home to beat the throw from Rangers first baseman Nathaniel Lowe on a fielder's choice.

After Tommy Pham hit a leadoff homer in the fourth, the D-backs stepped on the accelerator once again in the fifth. Perdomo hit a leadoff single, then stole second and scored on Ketel Marte's RBI double, which extended his postseason hitting streak to an MLB-record-tying 17 games.

"We played a pretty good baseball game," Lovullo said. "We were in a position to win it."

But then the bats went quiet.

Only one of the D-backs' final 16 hitters reached base safely. Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s two-out single in the eighth accounted for Arizona's only baserunner from the seventh inning onward -- and nobody reached scoring position after Thomas’ two-out steal of second in the sixth.

“We didn’t do our job [late in the game]," Thomas said. "We didn’t get guys on base and in scoring position. We just didn’t do our job there."

The final six innings of Game 1 felt much like the early stages of the NLCS, when the D-backs had trouble creating the chaos they’ve become known for simply because they didn’t have anyone on base.

Of course, that version of the team reemerged in the final two games in Philadelphia, when Arizona stole four bases in each contest. With another four steals on Friday, the D-backs became the first team in MLB history to steal at least four bases in three consecutive postseason games.

Arizona was also the first team since the 1909 Pirates to have at least four stolen bases and a triple in a postseason game.

Remember, Diamondback baseball is chaotic and anything but ordinary. But more often than not this postseason, it has resulted in wins.

“If we continue to do those things,” Longoria said, “we’re going to have success in this series.”

Keep in mind, the D-backs -- who were in front for the majority of Game 1 -- never so much as held a lead against the Phillies while being outscored 15-3 in the first two games of the NLCS.

That worked out pretty well.

“There’s a lot of ball to be played,” Marte said via a translator. “They’re just up one. Lot of ball to be played.”

If that ball is “Diamondback baseball” -- as Lovullo has branded it all postseason -- the D-backs like their chances.